
Class ~5V 

BookJ_ 

Copyright^ 



C0PXRIGHT DEPOSfH 




(3)£9^ 



"The Gospel Awakening. 



>5 



COMPRISING THE 



SERMONS AND ADDRESSES, ^Y? 

Prayer Meeting Talks and Bible Readings, 

OF THE 

GREAT REVIVAL MEETINGS, 

CONDUCTED BY 

Moody and Sankey, 

IN THE CITIES OF 

Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and Boston, 

WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 

CHRISTIAN CONVENTIONS OF MINISTERS AND LAYMEN. 

From Verbatim Reports by on r own Phonographer, and those of the New York 
Tribune, Chicago Inter-Ocean, Boston Journal and Boston Globe. 

ALSO THE LIVES OF 

D. L. Moody, I. D. Sankey, P. P. Bliss, Rev. Joseph Cook, 
and Frances E. Willard. 

BY M. LAIRD SIMONS, 

1 utk^r of " Companion Articles to the Pictorial Home Bible;" Editor of "Sund • ; 
Half Hours with the Great Preachers" and " Duyckinck 's Cyclopedia 
of American Literature" 



ILLUSTRATED. 




CHICAGO: 
L. T. PALMER & CO. 

Philadelphia,, William Flint. St. Louis, Scammell & Company 

Springfield, Mass., Star Publishing Co. 

1877. 









11 



The Library 
of Conor hss 



WASHINGTON 



COPYRIGHTED EY 

L. T. PALMER & CO., 
A. D. 1877. 





rS 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



The Gospel Awakening of the present time is the great religious 
event of the Nineteenth century, in our own land and Great Britain ; 
and it has had no parallel since the mighty revival labors put forth by 
Wesley and Whitefield, a hundred years since. At the appearance 
of two plain and zealous Evangelists, town after town, and city upon 
city have awakened out of religious lethargy and sectarian rivalry. 
the foremost ministers and laymen have been glad to co-operate 
with and learn from these consecrated lay preachers; night organi- 
zations for reaching the great masses have been extemporized, as if 
by magic; and better still, the quickening impulse of a Christlike 
life has been imparted unto myriads, so that countless multitudes of 
sinners have been converted within the space of a few years, and 
cold congregations have been fired with a burning desire to work for 
the Master. 

It is the object of this volume to give an adequate record of this 
wonderful revival movement, by tracing it from its conception as a 
germ in the heart of a single man to its full and glorious fruition, as 
it now challenges the admiration of believers and the silent respect 
of the skeptical. We have sought to embrace within the compass of 
a single book, a compact and cheap edition of Mr. Moody's sermons, 
that his awakening and intensely interesting discourses may be put 
within the reach of the great American public. So the present vol- 
ume presents above a hundred and twenty of his best sermons, as 
delivered in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago and Boston, besides 
full reports of the notable Christian Conventions in those cities, with 
other addresses, Prayer Meeting Talks, Bible Readings and Prayers, 



IV PREFACE. 

as well as occasional services by Mr. Sankey. As comparatively few 
have heard more than a small portion of these discourses, while vast 
numbers have as yet been unable to attend a single meeting held 
under their auspices, we have the confident assurance that this effort 
to present a complete people's edition of these words spoken and 
deeds done will be appreciated. 

The accompanying biographies of Messrs. Moody, Sankey, Bliss, 
and several of their fellow laborers, have been prepared by an au- 
thor who reverences them because of the Christlike spirit and 
blessed results he has witnessed in their self-denying labors. A 
peculiarly vivid light is thrown upon their publie career by a narra- 
tion of their early life and Christian experiences. Indeed, the story 
of their personal training, by a series of providential events, is in- 
tensely fascinating. It thus becomes apparent to every reader that 
these men were Divinely fitted and called to the work of being Mis 
sionaries of the Cross, throughout the English-speaking world. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Publishers' Preface ...... . . 3 

Contents • - • • 5 

Life of Moody 9 

" Sankey 20 

Life of Moody and Sankey in Great Britain . . .28 

" Maj. D. W. Whittle 35 

" Philip Paul Bliss 36 

" Joseph Cook . . ...... 44 

" Miss Frances E. Willard 49 

SERMONS. 

God is Love . . . 51 

Death of Christ . . 60 

Come into the Ark 69 

Trust . . . . 76 

New 86 

Behold 96 

Instant Salvation " . . . 103 

The Prodigal Son 110 

Christ the Deliverer . 118 

The Thief on the Cross 125 

Strength in Weakness . . • . . . . 131 

The.r Faith . * 137 

Courage and Enthusiasm 147 

To Every Man His Work .152 

Love and Sympathy 157 

The Gospel, 1st Sermon 165 

The Gospel, 2d Sermon 172 

No Difference 179 

The Second Birth 185 

How to be Born Again 193 

Skek the Lord 200 

Grace 207 

What think ye of Christ? 214 

Faith 219 

Confessing Christ 226 

Compassion of Cit::ist 235 

No Room for Jksus 241 

5 



O CONTENTS. 

PAaa. 

The Blood — The Old Testament . . . . • 247 

" New « . . . . 255 

Heaven 264 

Heavenly Measures . . . . . . m 274 

Love of God , 285 

Future Punishment 292 

What Seek Ye? 299 

Trust in the L.ord 305 

Repentance 314 

King Saul 323 

Walking with God 331 

Love 338 

Christ and Adam 344 

One thing thou Lackest ....... 351 

Reaping what we Sow 360 

Sowing and Reaping . . 363 

Obstacles 366 

y The Lord's Service Pats . . . . . . . 371 

Charity 378 

The Good Samaritan ........ 385 

His Own Brother 391 

Where Art Thou? 395 

To the Broken Hearted 403 

Spiritual Blindness 410 

True Repentance 417 

What Christ is to us . . . ., . . . 424 

Christ Our Keeper 432 

The Gospel Gift 434 

Conversion of Saul / . . 438 

Naaman the Leper 445 

How to Help Inquirers 450 

Address to Parents . . 457 

Address to Youxg Men 464 

Weighed in the Balances 471 

Eight " I W lls" of Christ 479 

The Gospel Preacher ........ 486 

Their Rock is not as our Rock ..... 492 

The Pharisee and the Publican 501 

^/Address to Business Men 508 

On Saving Children 516 

Salvation for Sinners 525 

Come • 536 

Work 545 

On the Death of P. P. Bliss .... . 553 

God is Able 560 



CONTENTS. 



The Ripening Harvest 
The Prophet Daniel 
How to Study the Bible 
The Power of Prayer 
The Great Physician 
The Yoke op Jesus 
What must I do? 



Christians not to Faint 
Character of Jacob 

" " Joshua 

Separation from the Worl 
Life of Peter 
The Resurrection . 
Jesus Fulfilling Prophecy 
Signs of the New Birth 
Second Coming of Christ , 
Personal Statement at Boston 
Mr. Sankey's Address on Praise 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS 



Christ the Good Samaritan . 
Create a Clean Heart in me, O God! 
God's Power to Save the Drunkard 
A Rainy Day Prayer Meeting 
Disobedience .... 

Hope 

Fruits of the Spirit 
/What is it to believe on Christ ? 

Praise 

Christ Mighty to Save 

Peace .... 

Affliction . 

Hope for the Inebriate 

Belief in God 

He Came to Save Sinners 

Joseph of Arimathea 

Losing Sight of Self 

True Friendship 

Our Refuge 

The Holy Spirit 

Three Classes 

Seven Comes 

The Right Spirit 



CONTENTS. 



Prayer 

Heart Searching 

Dancing Church Members 

Unanimity . . 

Personal Effort 

Confession 

Children Invited 

The Boston Marketmen 

The Boston Revival . 

Mr. Sankey's Address 



PASK. 

691 
, G93 

696 
. 696 

697 
, 697 

698 
. 699 

702 
, 702 



BIBLE READINGS. 

Overcoming Self 704 

Nothing too Hard for God . 707 

Casting out Devils . . , . • . . . 709 

The Gospel Invitation 713 

Divinity of Jesus ' . . 714 

Prayers of Jesus 717 

Life, Love, Peace, Power, Boldness .... 719 

PRAYERS OF MR. MOODY. 

Prayer for the Wicked of Boston 721 

Passion for souls 722 

Backsliders . . . . . . . 722 

Victory over Self 723 

Faith 723 

724 

725 

725 

726 

727 

. " . . . .728 

..- * . . . .729 

... . .729 

730 

..... 731 

731 

732 

732 



BY 



Inquirers * 

Young Men 

Scoffers 

Unbelievers 

Wisdom 

Wanderers 

Converts 

Drunkards 

The Indifferent 

Holy Ghost 

Those in Affliction 

Skeptics 

Mr. Sankey 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTIONS. 

Christian Convention in Boston 734 

« " " New York .... 748 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

The United States is now in the midst of the throes of the third 
of the great Religious Awakenings that have become so memorable 
in its historic development. It is of the deepest importance for Chris- 
tians, and for all thinking men as well, to pause and study the origin, 
development and results of these successive broodings of the Spirit 
of God upon the face of the becalmed waters of the church. Were 
these singular events only isolated and hap-hazard phenomena, which 
achieved nothing beyond a temporary inrushing of souls into the fold 
of Christ; or were they inspired by the deep councils of the Almighty 
Ruler of Nations and the head of the church, for the upbuilding of 
his kingdom, and the putting forth of mighty efforts for bringing 
the entire world under his own control? The scanty limits of our 
space allow us only to suggest this line of thought, and to make a 
very hasty generalization of the facts. 

"The Great Awakening " of 1740-42 was not confined to New 
England, though that section was peculiarly blessed. The soul- 
stirring sermons of George Whitefield, the grandest preacher in 
modern times of salvation by Christ Jesus and him crucified, were 
preceded by the faithful pastorate of Jonathan Edwards^ and sup- 
plemented by the loving zeal of Gilbert Tennant. Fifty thousand 
souls were converted at that time. That same ratio of one in forty 
of the entire population should result at present in the conversion of 
fully a million. But that revival is specially deserving to be termed 
one "of doctrinal instruction, of spiritual quickening." It checked 
the practice, then so common among the Presbyterian and Con- 
gregational churches, of admitting to the communion all persons 
of orthodox belief and moral life, without requiring any evidence of 
conversion, and merely on the basis of a subscription to the half-way 
covenant. This wonderful season of refreshing grace did not really 
end until Whitefield and Tennant were called away from their toils, 
in 1770. And thus, when the American Colonies were overshadowed 
by the black pall of the Revolutionary war, and they were called on 
to pass through the baptism of fire that they might be welded into a 
nation, they were sustained by the spiritual strength which an entire 
generation had been imbibing. 

After the return of peace, the season of awakening was succeeded 
by a prolonged te in of organization for evangelistic labor. The tide 
of living humanity was now sweeping majestically across the con- 
tinent, reclaiming miles of farm lands from the wilderness every 
9 



10 DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

year. Yet the restless pioneers ever found the fervid circuit riders close 
upon their heels. To the tireless, consecrated disciples of the Wes- 
leyan name belongs much of the praise of having saved this nation 
born in a day from a condition of semi-barbarism and semi-heathen- 
ism. In the central districts, the West and the Southwest, seasons 
of local refreshing were enjoyed repeatedly. And when such godly 
ministers as Samuel Finley, a zealous Presbyterian, John Summer- 
field, "the young Wesley," Ashahel Nettleton, a calm and cautious 
Calvinist, Charles G. Finney, "the Pauline evangelist," E. N. Kirk, 
"the Chrysostom of evangelists," Daniel Baker, "the Whitefield of the 
South," and William Taylor, the Pacific apostle, journeyed about, 
abundant in labors for the glory of God, the times of rejoicings for 
many souls were interspersed throughout an entire half century. 
Christians of diverse denominations were drawn together as never 
before, to unite in such evangelical enterprises as the Bible and Tract 
societies, the Sunday-school union and Missionary associations, for 
the extension of gospel truth in the home and foreign fields. And 
as the flood-tide of this period, occurred the revival of 1857-8, 
wherein the whole land was again awakened to a newness of relig- 
ious feeling. From this epoch dates the organization of the Young 
Men's Christian Associations, whose home-like halls now dot the 
country. Again a season of trial and tribulation succeeded to the 
season of grace. A second baptism of blood came upon the nation, 
which burned away the fetters of the enslaved and set the bond peo- 
ple free. 

And now again, a greater throng of devout and self-sacrificing 
evangelists have gone abroad in the strength of the Lord, and with 
their hearts hungering for the saving of imperiled souls. Many of 
our readers bear in kind remembrance E. P. Hammond, "the chil- 
dren's evangelist," A. B. Earle, "the Union evangelist," J. W. Bon- 
ham, the Episcopal evangelist, and Mrs. Maggie Van Cott, the first 
woman preacher in the M. E. church; Henry Varley, Henry More- 
house, "the boy preacher," and George C. Needham, all powerful in 
Bible readings; Mr. and Mrs.W, E. Boardman, R. Pearsall Smith, and 
W. C. Palmer, and Rev. J. S. Inskip, disciples of the "higher Chris- 
tian life," and "Christian holiness." 

More prominent workers yet, owing to the wonderful hold which 
God has given them on the hearts of the American and English peo- 
ples, were the trio of fellow laborers who were divinely chosen to 
stand in the fore-front of the present Gospel Awakening — D. L. 
Moody, the gospel preacher, 1. D. Sankey, the gospel singer, and P. 
P. Bliss, the gospel poet. Indeed, these revival times are peculiarly 
notable for the opening of the eyes of the Christian world to a new 
and profounder study of the truths and mysteries of God's Word. 
Never before has the Holy Bible been more honored, and the men 
who have glorified it have been glorified before nations in return. 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 11 

The doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ to receive his saints 
unto himself has also been brought out of the limbo of forgetfulness 
into prominence, as one of the sweetest and most vital truths of the 
Christian's hope. It is the duty of the following pages to narrate 
briefly how these plain men were shaped and inspired to be the mes- 
sengers of the Lord of Hosts. In their experience, as in the lives of 
all the evangelists of mark, the secret of success will be found to be a 
reverential study of the Holy Scriptures, an habitual delight in secret 
prayer, and an entire consecration of all the faculties, so as to live in 
actual communion with Christ Jesus. As for the unveiled providen- 
ces which are to follow this season of grace, Mr. Moody frankly 
avows his concern touching some grand revelation of the Divine 
will. Dr. Spear has well shown that the result of this Awakening 
must be "one of dissemination." The magnificent organization and 
all the resources of the church must now be employed in conveying 
the knowledge of the gospel to every creature. When this consumma- 
tion of the preaching of the everlasting gospel is to be attained we 
know not; but this we do know from prophecy, that it is to fore- 
shadow the hour of judgment. 

Dwight Lyman Moody, the lay Evangelist, was born in the town 
of Northfield, Mass., on the 5th of February, 1837. He came of the 
old Puritan stock, his father's and mother's families being numbered 
among the earliest settlers of that state. His father, Edwin, owned 
a comfortable farm-house just without the town, and a few acres of 
stony land, the whole encumbered by a mortgage. When the build- 
ing trade was brisk, he worked as a stone mason, and his leisure 
hours he spent in cultivating his little farm. But his spirit was 
crushed by reverses in business, and he died suddenly after an illness 
of a few hours. Dwight was then only four year old, but the shock 
of that death made an impression on him which he declares he has 
never forgotton. This Dlow was followed by the birth of a twin boy 
and girl a few weeks later. Thus Mrs. Moody was burdened with 
the care of seven sons, and two daughters, of whom the eldest boy 
was only aged fifteen. Yet this widowed mother refused to part 
with any of her little brood. She bravely set about caring for them 
all, and contrived to have the little hands earn something for their 
support, by tilling the garden' and doing odd jobs for the neighbors. 
She taught them every day a little Bible lesson, and always accom- 
panied them to the Unitarian church and Sunday-school. 

Another sorrow came on the bereaved family, through the oldest 
boy becoming a runaway. We give Moody's description of this in- 
cident, as he told it in England, and because of the insight it gives 
into his home life. 

" I can give you a little experience of my own family. Before I 
was four years old the first thing I remember was the death of my 
father. He had been unfortunate in business, and failed. Soon 



12 DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

after his death the creditors came in and took everything. My mother 
was left with a large family of children. One calamity after another 
swept over the entire household. Twins were added to the family, 
and my mother was taken sick. The eldest boy was fifteen years of 
age, and to him my mother looked as a stay in her calamity, but all 
at once that boy became a wanderer. He had been reading some of 
the trashy novels, and the belief had seized him that he had only to 
go away to make a fortune. Away he went. I can remember how 
eagerly she used to look for tidings of that boy; how she used to 
send us to the postoflice to see if there was a letter from him, and 
recollect how we used to come back with the sad news, " No letter." 
I remember how in the evenings we used to sit beside her in that 
New England home, and we would talk about our father; but the 
moment the name of that boy was mentioned she would hush us into 
silence. Some nights when the wind was very high, and the house, 
which was upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the voice of my 
mother was raised in prayer for that wanderer who had treated her 
so unkindly. I used to think she loved him more than all of us put 
together, and I believe she did. On a Thanksgiving day — you know 
that is a family day in New England — she used to set a chair for 
him, thinking he would return home. Her family grew up and her 
boys left home. When I got so that I could write, I sent letters all 
over the country, but could find no trace of him. One day while in 
Boston, the news reached me that he had returned. While in that 
city, I remember how I used to look for him in every store — he had 
a mark on his face — but I never got any trace. One day while my 
mother was sitting at the door, a stranger was seen coming toward 
the house, and when he came to the door he stopped. My mother 
didn't know her boy. He stood there with folded arms and great 
beard flowing down his breast, his tears trickling down his face. 
When my mother saw those tears she cried, " Oh, it's my lost son," 
and entreated him to come in. But he stood still. " No, mother," 
he said, " I will not come in until I hear first that you have forgiven 
me." Do you believe she was not willing to forgive him ? Do you 
think she was likely to keep him long standing there. She rushed to 
the threshold, threw her arms around him, and breathed forgiveness." 
In his boyhood, Dwight was healthy, boisterous, self-willed, and 
a born leader among his playmates. His mother has said that he 
used to think himself a man when he was only a boy. He was by 
no means a promising scholar, for his head was more filled with 
thoughts of play and mischief than of study. He has related that 
his first master was quick-tempered and used to bring down his 
rattan often on his back. But the next teacher was a gentle lady, 
who was eager to rule the school with love. He chanced to be the 
first one who violated her discipline. The sturdy boy thought him- 
self able to resist any further rattanning, and doubtless he was. 



D WIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 13 

When she told him privately, however, how she loved him and her 
school, and said, "I want to ask you one favor — that is, if you love 
me, try and be a good boy." 

This spirited, untamed lad possessed a very receptive nature, and 
it was silently alive to the incidents of every-day life. His sermons 
abound with instances of how his early character was moulded by 
casual occurrences that would have been unfelt by most folks. He 
always remembered the efficacy of a prayer that dated back to 
his sixth year. An old fence up on a hillside had fallen upon him, 
and his efforts to get from under the heavy rails all failed. Then, 
as he said, "I happened to think that maybe God would help me, 
and so I asked him; and after that I could life the rails." The tolling 
of the church bell at each death in the village came to his mind very 
solemnly. The gift of a penny by an old man in a neighboring town 
was always fragrant in his memory. But a singular incident which 
occurred in his youth, some little while before he left his home, 
seems to have had so profound an influence in preparing his heart 
for acknowledging the Savior as its rightful ruler that it cannot well 
be passed over u'nnoticed. He has told it in these words: 

"When I was a young boy — before I was a Christian — I was in a 
field one day with a man who was hoeing. He was weeping, and he 
told me a strange story, which I have never forgotten. When he 
left home his mother gave him this text: 'Seek first the kingdom of 
God.' But he paid no heed to it. He said when he got settled in 
life, and his ambition to get money was gratified, it would be time 
enough then to seek the kingdom of God. He went from one vil- 
lage to another and got nothing to do. When Sunday came he went 
into a village church, and what was his great surprise to hear the 
minister give out the text, ' Seek first the kingdom of God.' He 
said the text went down to the bottom of his heart. He thought 
it was but his mother's prayer following him, and that some one must 
have written to that minister about him. He felt very uncomforta- 
ble, and when the meeting was over he could not get that sermon 
out of his mind. He went away from that town, and at the end of 
a week went into another church and he heard the minister give out 
the same text, 'Seek first the kingdom of God.' He felt sure this 
time that it was the prayers of his mother, but he said calmly and 
deliberately, ' No, I will first get wealthy.' He said he went on and 
did not go into a church for a few months, but the first place of 
worship he went into he heard a third minister preaching a sermon 
from the same text. He tried to drown— to stifle his feelings; tried 
to get the sermon out of his mind, and resolved that he would keep 
away from church altogether, and for a few years he did keep out of 
God's house. 'My mother died,' he said, 'and the text kept coming 
up in my mind, and I said I will try and become a Christian.' The 
tears rolled down his cheeks, as he said, 'I could not; no sermon 



14 DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 

ever touched me; my heart is as hard as that stone,' pointing to one 
in the field. I couldn't understand what it was all about — it was 
fresh to me then. I went to Boston and got converted, and the 
first thought that came to me was about this man. When I got 

back I asked my mother, 'Is Mr. L living in such a place?' 

'Didn't I write to you about him?' she asked. 'They have taken 
him to an insane asylum, and to every one who goes there he points 
with his finger up there and tells him to seek first the kingdom of 
God.' There was that man with his eyes dull with the loss of reason, 
but the text had sunk into his soul — it had burned down deep. Oh, 
may the Spirit of God burn the text into your hearts to-night. When 
I got home again my mother told me he was in his house, and I 
went to see him. 1 found him in a rocking chair, with that vacant, 
idiotic look upon him. As soon as he saw me, he pointed at me and 
said: ' Young man, seek first the kingdom of God.' Reason was 
gone, but the text was there. Last month, when I was laying my 
brother down in his grave, I could not help thinking of that poor 
man who was lying so near him, and wishing that the prayer of 
his mother had been heard, and that he had found the kingdom 
of God." 

Young Moody, at the age of seventeen, left Northfield, with his 
mother's permission, to seek employment in Boston, where his uncle 
was in business as a shoe merchant. Mr. Holton engaged his 
country nephew with some reluctance, and on two conditions. The 
lad agreed to be governed by his advice, and to attend regularly the 
Sunday school and services of the Mount Vernon Congregational 
church. Its pastor was the eloquent and learned Dr. E. N. Kirk, 
who, in earlier years, had accomplished much good as an evangelist. 
The lad was not much impressed by the preaching, which he was not 
qualified to comprehend; but the personal efforts of h s teacher, Mr. 
Edward Kimball, were blessed to his conversion. Many years alter, 
he told the story of how he was saved. " When I was in Boston, 
I used to attend a Sunday-school class, and one day I recollect a 
Sabbath-school teacher came round behind the counter of the shop 
1 was to work in. and put his hand on my should r, and talked to 
me about Christ and my soul. I had not felt that I had a soul till 
then. I said: '.This is a very strange thing. Here is a man who 
never saw me until within a few days, and he is weeping over, my 
sins, and I never shed a tear about tliem.' But I understand it now, 
and know what it is to have a passion for men's souls and weep over 
their sins. I don't remember what he said, but I .can feel the power 
of that young man's, hand on my shoulder to-night. Young Chris- 
tian men, go and lay your hand on your comrade's shoulder,- and 
■point him to Jesus to-night. Well, he got me. up to the school, and 
it was not long before .1 was brought into the kingdom of God." 
Years afterward, when Mr. Moody was preaching in Boston, he was 



DWIGHT LYMAN" MOODY. 15 

permitted to lead to the Savior a son of that teacher, who found 
peace in believing just at his own age of seventeen. Thus the seed 
sown on the waters bore in due time the sweetest fruitage for the 
sower. 

The young convert was unpromising enough at first, in outward 
appearance. He knew very little of the Scriptures, and he was not 
grounded in evangelical truth. Besides, his bashful shyness in the 
presence of cultured, refined Christians, his poor command of words 
to express his thoughts, and his broken, awkward sentences, made 
him, in the language of his teacher, very "unlikely ever to become a 
Christian of clear and decided views of gospel truth, still less to fill 
any extended sphere of public usefulness." Therefore it was that 
he was not accepted into membership until May, 1856, a year after 
his first application He remained but a few months longer in Bos- 
ton. He longed for a wider field of usefulness, where his energy in 
business and religious work would be less trammeled. So, in Sep- 
tember, 1856, he betook himself to Chicago with testimonials which 
secured him a business engagement as salesman in the shoe trade. 
He also entered the Plymouth Congregational Church, and showed 
his earnest spirit by renting four pews, which he kept filled with 
young men and boys. He desired to work in the service of prayer; 
but the brethren were not patient enough to suffer his crude experi- 
ence, and suggestions were not infrequent that he could best serve 
the Lord by silence. 

Mr. Moody's first start in the work of reaching souls was obtained 
through a little mission school. He offered himself as teacher, and 
was told he might attend if he would bring his own scholars. So 
that week he collected together some eighteen ragged boys, and 
marched in at their head on the next Sunday. He liked such work 
so well that he set about further visitations in the by-streets, and 
soon had the school filled. He also busied himself in distributing 
tracts, and in looking after the good of the seamen at the wharves. 
His ardent spirit soon impelled him to set up a mission for himself, 
in a neglected and degraded section of North Chicago. He paid for 
the hire of an empty tavern, and gathered together the unclean and 
rude children of the neighborhood for Sunday-school services while 
the intemperate and ignorant adults were reached in the evening 
meetings. The poor little ones were won over to attention by gifts 
of maple sugar, and a liberal lot of hymns and stories. Just at this 
time, Mr. Reynolds, of Peoria, visited this humble mission. His de- 
scription of the service is invaluable, as illustrating the progressive 
crrowth of the lay evangelist in strength and usefulness. "The first 
meeting I ever saw him at," he said several years since, "was in a 
little old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon keeper. . Mr. 
Moody had got the place to hold the meetings in at night. I went 
there a little late, and the first thing I saw was a man standing 



16 



D WIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 



up, with a few tallow candles around him, holding a negro boy, 
and trying to read to him the story of the Prodigal Son; and a 
great many of the words he could not make out, and had to 
skip. \ I thought, if the Lord can ever use such an instrument 
as that for his honor and glory, it will astonish me. After that 
meeting was over, Mr. Moody said to me: 'Reynolds, I have got 
only one talent. I have no education, but I love the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and I want to do something for him. I want you to pray foi 
me.' I have never ceased from that day to this, morning and night, 
to pray for that devoted Christian soldier. I have watched him since 
then, have had counsel with him, and know him thoroughly; and, 
for consistent walk and conversation, I have never met a man to 
equal him. It astounds me when I look back and see what Mr. 
Moody was thirteen years ago, and then what he is under God to- 
day — shaking Scotland to its very centre, and reaching now over to 
Ireland. The last time I heard from him, his injunction was, 'Pray 
for me every day; pray now that the Lord will keep me humble.'" 

Henceforth, missionary efforts were the uppermost concern in his 
daily life. The growth of his school led to the occupation of the 
North Market Hall, and John V. Farwell, a liberal merchant who 
supplied benches for the scholars, had the grace to become its super- 
intendent. Under Moody's vigorous canvassing, the average atten- 
dance was kept up to 650, and sixty teachers were obtained. His 
engagements as a traveling salesman were not suffered to interfere 
with these Sunday duties, and he was rarely compelled to be absent. 
As the hall was used till a late hour on Saturday night for dancing, 
it was his custom for six years to clean out the dirt and put the room 
in decent condition for the services. And he took care to let his light 
shine wherever he went. He feared neither drunkards nor rumsel- 
lers, deists nor infidels, for he felt himself a match for any adversary 
when armed with the sword of the Spirit and strengthened by prayer. 
When the children of Roman Catholic parents stoned his windows 
he at once sought redress of their bishop, and so won his confidence 
by a devout simplicity of spirit that immunity was secured for the 
future. His courageous avowal of his faith was startling to timid 
believers. When he was solicitous about the salvation of an ac- 
quaintance or a stranger, he hesitated not to kneel and offer prayer 
for his conversion then and there, no matter whether they were out 
in the streets or traveling in a railroad car. His faith and spirit of 
consecration waxed stronger by the study of God's Word and the 
constant fruitage of his life in good works. In 1860, after a time of 
soul-searching in prayer, he determined to give all his time to 
God as an Evangelist. When his employer inquired how he ex- 
pected to support himself, he replied : " God will provide for me if he 
wishes me to keep on, and I shall keep on till I am obliged to stop." 
His impulse in this personal work for souls was derived from the zeal 



DWIGHT LYxUAN MOODY. 17 

of one of his teachers, who was dying of consumption, and who was 
permitted, before his death, to lead every one of his large class to the 
Savior. He reduced his expenses to a minimum by doing without a 
home, so that he slept on a bench in the room of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and spent but little for food. After a time, 
contributions came to him from friends, and he was appointed a city 
missionary, so that his means for assisting the destitute were much 
enlarged. He commenced then to fulfill a vow by speaking to one 
unconverted man every day. Sometimes his tender approaches were 
rejected with scorn and cursing, but again and again persons who 
had vilified him were drawn by the power of a conscience under con- 
viction to seek the intercession of his prayers, that they might be led 
to the Savior. 

In the spirit of reliance on the leading of the Lord, the evangelist 
was married on the 28th of August, 1862, to Miss Emma C. Revell. 
This Christian lady was an helpful assistant in his meetings, and her 
sympathy made tiieir little fireside a refuge of rest to him amid his 
toils. For years their home was a smali and plain cottage. But its 
hospitality became proverbial, for gospel workers and reclaimed 
prodigals were entertained without stint. The gift of a daughter 
and a son made the father more susceptible to the thoughts and im- 
pulses of child-life. He took care always to remain in close commu- 
nion with their budding minds, and his sermons often have graphic 
illustrations of the methods he took to make them familiar with the 
fundamental truths of the faith. Meanwhile his daily living was 
wholly committed to the providence of God. His mind was absorbed 
in watching over the souls of the throngs about him, and he obeyed 
the scriptural injunction to take no anxious thought for the morrow. 
He lived the placid life befitting a child of God, having the trustful 
faith that his father would supply his needs while he was busy as a 
worker in his vineyard. One morning he said to his wife: " I have 
no money, and the house is without supplies. It looks as if the Lord 
had had enough of me in this mission work, and is going to send me 
back again to sell boots and shoes." But a day or two later brought 
to him two checks, one of fifty dollars for himself and the other for 
his school. He accepted this gift as a token from the Lord that he 
was held in favor. This instance was but one of many of a similar 
character. His unselfish labors raised up for him many friends, and 
these gave him, on New Year's day, 1868, the lease of a pleasant and 
furnished house. 

This whole season was one abounding in labors. Besides his 
army services, Mr. Moody was keenly alive to the needs of his mis- 
sion at the North Market Hall. His school numbered a thousand 
scholars. The congregation he had gathered together now contained 
three hundred adults converted under his preaching. Thus had 
grown up, wholly without human design, a staunch and inseparable 
2 



18 



DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 



congregation under a lay pastor. This was organized as an inde- 
pendent fold, on the basis of the evangelical faith. In 1863 a church 
building was erected on Illinois street at a cost of $20,000. Never 
had a people a more faithful and energetic pastor to watch over their 
welfare. Nor was he in the least forgetful of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, of Chicago. By his efforts its noon services 
for prayer were attended steadily by a thousand people. When its 
members were intent on obtaining a permanent hall, they elected 
him president in 1865. Their expectations were fulfilled by the 
speedy erection of " Farwell Hall," and its dedication on the 29th of 
September, 1867. That building was destroyed by fire within a few 
months, but his exhaustless energy soon reared a second edifice on 
the same site. On Sunday evenings he used to preach in its hall 
after spending the morning in his own pulpit, and the afternoon in 
superintending ten hundred school children. 

When Farwell Hall was dedicated, as " the first hall ever erected 
for Christian young men," Mr. Moody confessed his faith that, by the 
Lord's blessing, a religious influence was to go out from them that 
" should extend through every county in the State, through every 
State in the Union, and finally, crossing the waters, should help to 
bring the whole world to God." And this blessing did speedily be- 
gin. Through the earnest efforts of Mr. Moody, the Christians of 
Springfield were awakened to the need of prayer for the approach- 
ing meeting of the State Convention of Sunday-school teachers. As 
the results, all its sessions exhibited a hallowed influence. Many 
conversions occurred, and the delegates bore through the length and 
breadth of the State tokens of the fervid baptism of the Spirit. 

Mr. Moody has been for years peculiarly a Bible Christian. Again 
and again friends have suggested to him certain courses of study, or 
the reading of particular books. But the pressure of his active du- 
ties as an evangelist has always intervened and prevented him from 
making any effort for the attainment of a theological education. 
Hence, he has been providentially driven to depend upon his per- 
sonal study of the Bible itself, as its own best interpreter. The sol- 
emn injunction of Holy Writ to " Preach the Word," and the Word 
only, was impressed upon his mind by Harry Morehouse, " the boy 
preacher" of Manchester, who told him: "You need only one book 
for the study of the Bible. Since I have been an evangelist I have 
been the man of one book. If a text of scripture troubles me, I ask 
another text to explain it; and if this will not answer I carry it 
straight to the Lord." He met this lad, then aged seventeen, in his 
first visit to England and Ireland in 1867. A few months later, 
Morehouse visited Chicago, and delighted Mr. Moody by delivering 
seven Bible readings upon the love of God. He brought a multitude 
of passages to illustrate the depth of spiritual meaning in the text 
of John 3: 16, which Luther has well termed "the little Gospel." 



D WIGHT LYMAN MOODY. 19 

This intercourse came to him as a new revelation of the wonders of 
God's Word and love. From that time his two accepted guide 
books were Cruden's Concordance and the little Bible Text Books. 
These aids enabled him to trace any word or doctrine through the 
Holy Scriptures. In Mr. Moody's second visit to England, in the 
spring of 1872, he learned from the devout Plymouth Brethren to 
appreciate and appropriate the promises which abound in the Bible 
of the second coming of Christ. " I have felt like working three 
times as hard," he has stated, " since I came to understand that my 
Lord was coming back again. I look on this world as a wrecked 
vessel. God has given me a life-boat, and said to me, ' Moody, save 
all you can.' " He was also impressed by the prediction of Henry 
Varley, the Bible reader: "It remains for the world to see what the 
Lord can do with a man wholly consecrated to Christ." Again, at 
another time, he heard one Christian ask another of himself : " Is this 
young man all O. O.?" meaning, "is he out and out for Christ?" 
He has confessed that this question burned down into his soul, and 
taught him that it meant a good deal to be O. O. for Christ. 

The terrible fire of October, 1871, which swept Chicago into a 
whirlwind of flame, laid in ruins all the buildings that were asso- 
ciated with his labors. It also separated from him his yoke-fellow, 
Mr. £ra D. Sankey, who had joined him as a gospel singer only four 
months before. But the evangelist was not cast down. Contribu- 
tions came to his aid from his friends at the East, in answer to his 
appeals. Within three months he had a large frame Tabernacle 
erected, measuring seventy-five by one hundred and nine feet. All 
his services were resumed, and the building also served as a store- 
house of supplies for the impoverished district. His plans were laid 
out for the completion of a permanent church edifice, and an appeal 
for aid was made to the Sunday-school children of the land. While 
this was in progress, the two yoke-fellows, after a patient waiting on 
the Lord for guidance, accepted an invitation to visit the British Isles 
as evangelists. Mr. Moody, after four months of self-searching in- 
quiry, had made an entire consecration of his life to the Lord, and 
was fired with a baptism of the Spirit which, as he avowed later, 
made him eager " To go round the world and tell the perishing mil- 
lions of a Savior's love." 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

In the good providence of God, the Gospel Preacher was given the 
Gospel Singer, that they might go forth together, like the first disci- 
ples sent out by the Lord — double for fellowship, single in heart — to 
labor as yoke-fellows in the harvest-field of the world. The first, as 
we have seen, had been trained in the rugged school of adversity 
and self-denial, that he might be bold, self-reliant, patient, fearless, 
venturesome in deeds of faith, and tireless in labors of love. His 
companion, on the contrary, was reared under the hallowing influ- 
ences of a happy, Christian homestead, so that his whole character 
was mellowed by the sweetening experiences of a childhood and 
manhood developed harmoniously and joyously. So strangely di- 
verse was their training as individuals. Yet so wisely ordered were 
all the events of these isolated lives by the Master's hand, these two 
Christian workers when joined together and tested, were found to bo 
admirably fitted to supplement each other's deficiencies, and thus to 
constitute a human instrumentality which the Lord could use for 
glorifying himself and extending his kingdom upon earth. 

Ira David Sankey was born on the 28th of August, 1840. His 
birthplace was the village of Edinburgh, Lawrence county, in west- 
ern Pennsylvania. On the paternal side he came of English stock, 
and on the maternal, of Scotch-Irish. His parents were natives of 
Mercer county, and were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
Out of their family of nine children, only three sons and one daughter 
grew up to maturity. David, the father, was well off in worldly cir- 
cumstances, and in such good repute among his neighbors that they 
repeatedly elected him a member of the state legislature. He was 
also a licensed exhorter in his own church. Thus the means and the 
character of this household were such as to insure ample advantages 
for culture in general kuowledge and spiritual truth. • 

Ira, from his childhood, was noted for his joyous spirit and trust- 
ful disposition. The sunshiny face that is so attractive in his public 
ministry, has been a distinguishing feature from early boyhood," and 
very early won him the praise of being "the finest little fellow in the 
neighborhood." His father states: "There was nothing very re- 
markable in his early or boyhood history. The gift of singing devel- 
oped in him at a very early age. I say gift, because it was God- 
given; he never took lessons from any one, but his taste for music 
was such that when a small boy he could make passible music on 
almost any kind of instrument." An old Scotch farmer, named Fra- 
20 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. 



■l\ 



zer, early interested himself in the little lad; and of his good influ- 
ence Mr. Sankey thus spoke, at a children's meeting held in the 
town of Dundee, Scotland: "The very first recollection 1 have of 
anything pertaining to religious life was in connection with him. I 
remember he took me by the hand, along with his own boys, to the 
Sabbath-school, — that old place which I shall remember to my dying- 
day. He was a plain man, and I can see him standing up and pray- 
ing for the children. He had a great, warm heart, and the children 
all loved him. It was years after that when I was converted, but my 
impressions w T ere received when I was very young, from that man." 

Thus reared in a genial, religious atmosphere, liked and respected 
by all who knew him and accepted as a leader by his boyish com- 
rades, Ira lived on till past his fifteenth year before his soul was con- 
verted to Christ. His conviction as a sinner occurred while he 
attended a series of special services held in a little church three miles 
from his home, and of which Rev. H. H. Moore was then pastor. At 
first, he was as gay as his curious companions. But an earnest 
Christian met him each evening with a few soul-searching words; 
and after a week's hard struggle, he came as a sinner to the Savior 
and found peace in acceptance. Soon after, when his father re- 
moved to Newcastle to assume the presidency of the bank, Ira be- 
came a member of the Methodist church, and also a pupil at the 
academy in Newcastle. 

This young Christian was richly endowed with a talent for singing 
spiritual songs. His pure, beautiful voice gave a clear utterance to 
the emotions of his sympathetic, joyous nature, and was potent in 
carrying messages from his heart to the hearts of his hearers. It now 
became his delight to devote this precious gift to the service of his 
Lord, and it was his continual prayer that the Holy Spirit would 
bless the words sung to the conversion of those who flocked to the 
services to hear him. Before he attained his majority he was ap- 
pointed superintendent of the Sunday-school, which contained above 
three hundred scholars; and it was blessed with a continual revival. 
His singing of the gospel invitations in solos dates from this time. 
These sweet hymns were sung in the very spirit of prayer, and the 
faith of the singer was rewarded with repeated blessings. A class 
of seventy Christians was committed to his charge, and this weighty 
responsibility made him a more earnest student of the Holy Bible. 
He encouraged his class to tell him of their condition in Bible lan- 
guage, as texts abounded for every state of grace, and every de- 
scription of religious feeling. The choir of the congregation also 
came under his leadership. Young as he was, he insisted on conduct 
befitting praise-singers in the house of God, and on a clear enuncia- 
tion of each word sung. 

These congenial religious duties were suspended for a time by the 
call of the nation to arms upon the fall of Fort Sumter. Mr. San- 



ZZ IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

key was among the first to volunteer for three months, and he served 
out his term of enlistment. Even in camp he gathered about him a 
band of singers, and was an earnest worker in the prayer-meetings of 
soldiers. Upon his return home, be became an assistant to his father 
as collector of internal revenue. He held that position with credit 
till his voluntary resignation, nearly ten years later. On the 9th of 
September, 1863, he was married to Miss Edwards, a helpful mem- 
ber of his choir and teacher in his school. Their happy family now 
contains three sons, of whom the youngest was born in Scotland, 
while the eldest, Henry, is already a boy evangelist. 

Mr. Sankey is an artless, and not an artistic singer. It has chanced 
that he has never studied music under a cultured teacher, and hence 
he has always relied upon his intuitive genius for song. He sings 
just like a nightingale, and pours forth his whole heart in a flood of 
melody. And he does this not for the sake of winning praise for the 
skill of his execution, or for the beauty of his rich baritone voice. 
Such a use would be a profanation of the talent which he has ded- 
icated to the service of his Savior. His sole aspiration is that his 
song may be blessed to the bearing of gospel truth into the hearts of 
his audience. Hence he makes each articulation distinct and aud- 
ible, sings with the whole wealth of his heart, and hallows the hymn 
for good unto souls by secret prayer. 

As he sought only to honor his Lord, the latter has honored him 
before men. Conventions and other religious gatherings became 
eager to have him lead their services of praise, and he kept all such 
engagements without making any charge. He assisted in organizing 
a Young Men's Christian Association at Newcastle, and was elected 
president. In June, 1871, he was appointed its delegate to the In- 
ternational Convention, which met at Indianapolis. It was there 
that he first met Mr. Moody, and heard a call from him to give his 
whole time henceforth to working for the Master. At the early 
prayer-meeting, the singing was dull and doleful until Mr. Sankey 
was called forward to act as leader. His sweet voice and fervid 
spirit at once brought the bold evangelist to his side. "Where do 
you live?" asked Mr. Moody, bluntly. "In Newcastle, Pennsylva- 
nia." "Are you married?" "Yes." "How many children have 
you?" " One." " I want you." "What for?" " To help me in my 
work at Chicago." "I cannot leave my business." "You must: I 
have been looking for you for the last eight years. You must give 
up your business, and come to Chicago with me." "I will think of 
it; I will pray over it; I will talk it over with my wife." 

Prayer and reflection deepened the conviction which this call made 
on Mr. Moody's heart. With painful reluctance, he severed the as- 
sociations so dear to him at his home, and in the spirit of faith joined 
Mr. Moody in his vast labors as an evangelist in Chicago. His ten- 
der sympathy and loving manner qualified him to give just the sweet 



IRA DAVID SANKEY. 23 

melody needed to modulate the fiery boldness of the lay preacher 
Here they worked together in harmony, and were blessed with many 
souls as their hire, until the city of Chicago was swept by a storm of 
iire in the following October. These companions then lost all their 
possessions and had to separate. Mr. Sankey now rejoined his fam- 
ily in Pennsylvania, and set about singing for conventions again, un- 
til a telegram from Mr. Moody, three months late, to " Come at once," 
recalled him to the work of the new Tabernacle in Chicago. This 
disaster strengthened instead of shattering the trustful faith of these 
evangelists, for it opened the hearts of the people more readily to re- 
ceive their message of the Savior's love, and made the frame building 
a sanctuary for relieving the bodily and spiritual wants of multitudes 
of the homeless. 

Just in the midst of this season of trial Mr. Sankey was very 
much encouraged by the testimony of a little dying girl. This inci- 
dent, which was destined to have an effect upon his whole after life, 
was thus narrated by him at Dundee, Scotland: "I want to speak 
a word about singing, not only to the little folks, but to grown 
people. During the winter after the great Chicago fire, when the 
place was built up with little frame houses for the people to stay in, 
a mother sent for me one day to come and see her little child, who 
was one of our Sabbath-school scholars. I remembered her very well, 
having seen her in the meetings very frequently, and was glad to go. 
She was lying in one of those poor little huts, everything having 
been burned in the fire. I ascertained that she was past all hope of 
recovery, and that they were waiting for the little one to pass away. 
4 How is rt with you to-day?' I asked. With a beautiful smile on her 
face, she said, ' It is all well with me to-day. I wish you would 
speak to my father and mother.' ' But,' said I, ' are you a Chris- 
tian?' 'Yes,' 'When did you become one?' 'Do you remember, 
last Thursday, in the Tabernacle, when we had that little singing 
meeting, and you sang 'Jesus Loves Even Me?' 'Yes.' 'It was last 
Thursday. I believed on the Lord Jesus, and now I am going to be 
with him to-day.' That testimony from that little child in that neg- 
lected quarter of Chicago, has done more to stimulate me and bring 
me to this country, than all that the papers or any persons might 
say. I remember the joy I had in looking upon that beautiful face. 
She went up to heaven, and no doubt said she learned upon the earth 
that Jesus loved her from that little hymn. If you want to enjoy a 
blessing, go to the bedsides of these bedridden and dying ones, and 
sing to them of Jesus, for they cannot enjoy these meetings as you 
do. You will get a great blessing to your own souls." 

The joy of having this first convert through his own ministry of 
song led the gospel singer to a more thorough reliance on the lead- 
ing of his Master and a still deeper study of God's Word. When 
Mr. Moody paid a visit to England in the spring of 1872, his yoke- 



24 IRA DAVID SANKEY. 

fellow was naturally left to act as leader in the services at the Tab- 
ernacle. His leisure hours at this time were spent in gathering a 
number of spirited hymns that appeared to be adapted for evangelis- 
tic services, and in fitting a few of them with appropriate music. 
These were arranged into a " Musical Scrap Book," and that was 
the only book, besides his Bible, that he took with him on the voyage 
of faith across the At 1 antic. Among these sacred songs were P. P. 
Bliss' "Hold the Fort," "Jesus Loves Even Me," and "Free from 
the Law;" Mrs. Dr. Griswold's "We're Going Home To-morrow;" 
Mrs. E. Codner's "Lord, I hear of Showers of Blessing; 5 Mrs. W. 
S. Ackerman's "Nothing but Leaves;" Rev. S. Loury's "Shall we 
Gather at the river;" Miss Anna Warner's "One More Dav's Work 
for Jesus;" Kate Harlsev's "I Love to Tell the Story;" Mrs. A. S. 
Hawks' "I Need Thee Every Hour;" Mrs. Lydia Baxter's "Take 
the Name of Jesus With you;" Mrs. Emily S. Oakey's "Sowing the 
Seed by the Daylight Fair;" Fanny J. Crosby's "Safe in the Arms 
of Jesus," and "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior;" Rev. Joseph H. 
Gilmore's "He Leadeth Me;" and Rev. W. W. W r alford's " Sweet 
Hour of prayer." 

Two other chief favorites of his selection were "Ninety and Nine" 
and " Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By." The first of these was written 
by Miss Eliza C. Clephane, of Melrose, Scotland, in 1868, and was 
printed a little while before her death, in the Daily Treasury, edited 
by Dr. Arnott. Six years elapsed before it came, providentially, to 
Mr. Sankey's notice, while he was in Scotland. It chanced that he 
bought, among other religious weeklies, a copy of The Christian 
Age, of London, of the date of May 13, 1874, and found the "Ninety 
and Nine" reprinted as a poetical waif. He was at once so im- 
pressed with its value for his mission of gospel song that he com- 
posed an air for it, and sang it three days later in the Free Assembly 
Hall, Edinburgh. A letter of thanks from the sister of the poet gave 
him the facts of its authorship, and led to the receipt of one other 
precious hymn, " Beneath the Cross of Jesus," which now appears 
as the forty-ninth in " Gospel Hymns." Miss Campbell was the 
author of " Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By." Her heart was deeply 
moved by a revival at Newark, N. J., in 1864, and her imagination 
was fired by an address by R. G. Pardee, on the reply to blind Bar- 
timeus: "They told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." The 
second stanza is given herewith, as it is omitted in the common 
version: 

E'en children feel the potent spell. 
And haste their new-found joy to tell; 
In crowds they to the place repair 
Where Christians daily bow in prayer. 
Hozannah's mingle with the cry: 
"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 



IRA DANID SANKEY. 25 

In the spring of 1873, two paths of usefulness were opened to the 
choice of Mr. Sankey. His brother evangelist desired his aid for a 
gospel visitation to Great Britain, while Philip Phillips offered him 
brilliant prospects for a singing term of six months on the Pacific 
coast. His decision was destined to be of great moment to the wel- 
fare of his generation. He looked to prayer for guidance, and then 
was led to adopt this advice of a friend: " Two workers in the same 
line, especially two singers, are sure not to agree. Go with Moody; 
then you can do your work, and he can do his, and there will be no 
occasion of conflict between you." So, attended by his little family, 
he trustfully set forth on a journey of four thousand miles, on a 
mission of gospel evangelization which was to attain far grander re- 
sults for good than one could dare to hope. 

The joyous, prayerful singing of the gospel in hymns by Mr. 
Sankey, came like a revelation of unexpected truth and grace to the 
Scottish and English peoples. In Scotland especially, to the sur- 
prise of all who are acquainted with the cautious, distrustful and 
clannish character of the followers of John Knox, the masses were 
moved with an indescribable impulse. The unimpassioned worship- 
ers, who had been accustomed for generations to reject as unin- 
spired all other services of praise than their own rude, unpoetic ver- 
sion of the psalms, now listened with a hungry delight to the testi- 
monies of spiritual song, as it fell like a blessing from the lips of the 
most gifted Christian singer of the age. His intense earnestness 
made the old, old story enter as a divine message into the conscien- 
ces and hearts of those who came to hear him out of curiosity, or as 
doubters. Thus the singing of hymns and the use of a melodeon as 
an accompaniment were welcomed at sight with a heartiness that 
dissipated the prejudices of centuries. 

One of his hearers, Mrs. Barbour, thus described the abiding im- 
pressions made on his audiences at Edinburgh: "Mr. Sankey 
sings with the conviction that souls are receiving Jesus between one 
note and the next. The stillness is overawing; some of the lines are 
more spoken than sung. The hymns are equally used for awaken- 
ing, none more than 'Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.' When you 
hear the 'Ninety and Nine' sung, you know of a truth that down 
in this corner, up in that gallery, behind that pillar which hides the 
singer's face from the listener, the hand of Jesus has been finding 
this and that and yonder lost one, to place them in his fold. A cer- 
tain class of hearers come to the services solely to hear Mr. Sankey, 
and the song throws the Lord's net around them. We asked Mr. 
Sankey one day what he was to sing. He said, * I'll not know till I 
hear how Mr. Moody is closing.' Again, we were driving to the 
Canongate Parish Church one winter night, and Mr. Sankey said to 
the young minister who had come for him, ' I'm thinking of singing 



26 IRA DAVID SAXKEY. 

"lam so glad" to-night. ' Oh!' said the young man, 'please do 
rather sing " Jesus of Nazareth." An old man told me to-day that 
he had been awakened by it the last night you were down. He said, 
" It just went through me like an electric shock." A gentleman in 
Edinburgh was in distress of soul, and happened to linger in a pew 
after the noon-meeting. The choir had remained to practice, and 
began 'Free from the Law, Oh happy condition.' Quickly the Spirit 
of God carried that truth home to the awakened conscience, and he 
was at rest in the finished work of Jesus." 

" The wave of sacred song," she added, " has spread over Ireland, 
and is now sweeping through England. But, indeed, it is not being- 
confined to the United Kingdom alone. Far away off on the shores 
of India, and in many other lands, these sweet songs of a Savior's 
love are being sung. Mr. Sankey's collection of sacred songs has 
been translated into five or six languages, and are winging their way 
into tens of thousands of hearts and homes, and the blessing of the 
Lord seems to accompany them wherever sung." 

At a noon-day prayer-meeting, when the hymn 

" Sowing the seed by the daylight fair," 

was announced for singing, Mr. Sankey spoke as follows: "Before 
we sing this hymn, I will tell you one reason why we should sing 
these hymns. It is because God is blessing them to many a poor 
wanderer who comes to this building night after night. Last week 
a man who had once occupied a high position in life came into this 
hall, and sat down. While I was singing this hymn he took out his 
pass-book and wrote out these words — 

" ' Sowing the seed of a lingering pain. 
Sowing the seed of a maddened brain, 
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame ; 
Oh ! what shall the harvest be ? ' 

u Last night that man in the inquiry-room went on his knees, and 
asked God to break the chain that had dragged him down from such 
a high position to the lowest of the low. He said he had resolved 
when he went out of that praise-meeting that he would cease to in- 
dulge in the intoxicating cup; but before he reached home he went 
into a saloon, and broke his resolution. We prayed for him last 
night. He is now praying that God may break his chain. I want 
you to pray that this brand may be plucked from the burning, and 
that God may use these gospel hymns to turn the hearts of sinful 
men." 

A touching account has been given in an English journal of the 
last hours of a young girl only ten years old, who had listened in 
delight to Mr. Sankey's singing. " Oh, how I love those dear hymns," 



IE A. DAVID SANKEY. 27 

said she. " When I am gone, mother, will you ask the girls of the 
school to sing the hymn: 

"King the bells of heaven ! there is joy today, 
For a soul returning from the wild ; 
See ! the Father meets him out upon the way, 
Welcoming his weary, wandering child." 

The night before her death she said: "Dear father and mother, 
I hope I shall meet you in heaven! I am so happy, mother! You 
cannot think how bright and happy I feel." Again: "Perhaps 
Jesus may send me to fetch some of my brothers and sisters. I 
hope he will send me to fetch you, mother." 

Half an hour before her departure, she exclaimed, "Oh, mother, 
hark at the bells of heaven! they are ringing so beautifully." 

Then, closing her eyes a while, presently she cried again, "Heark- 
en to the harps! they are most splendid. Oh, I wish you could hear 
them!" 

Then, shortly after, she spoke again: "O mother! I see the Lord 
Jesus and the angels! Oh, if you could see them too! He is send- 
ing one to fetch me!" 

She had been counting the hours and minutes since she had heard 
the mill-bell at half-past one, p. m., longing so earnestly to depart, 
yet expressed a hope she might see her dear father (then absent at 
work) before she went. At last, just five minutes or so before her 
expiring breath, she said: "O mother! lift me up from the pillow, 
— high, high up! Oh, I wish you could lift me right up into heaven !" 
Then, almost immediately after — as doubtless conscious that the part- 
ing moment was at hand — "Put me down again — down quick!" 
Then calmly, brightly, joyously, gazing upward, as at some vision of 
surprising beauty, she peacefully, sweetly, triumphantly, breathed 
forth her precious spirit into the arms of the ministering angels 
whom Jesus had sent to fetoh herj and so was forever with the Lord 
she loved. 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

The mission of the gospel preacher and the gospel singer to the 
British Jsles was one of implicit faith, and of unselfish zeal for the 
saving of sinners. The secret motive of Mr. Moody was " to win 
ten thousand souls to Christ. 1 ' As far as worldly inducements were 
concerned, the circumstances were such as to forbid, rather than to 
favor, the venture across three thousand miles of sea. No influen- 
tial association had extended an invitation to them; not a single in- 
dividual had offered to help meet their personal expenses. Nor did 
these two companions, though they were about to take their families 
with them, expect or desire such a guarantee. They were united 
in the purpose to commit their ways entirely unto the Lord. To that 
end, they agreed beforehand to accept no payment for their services 
from any person or committee, and as well to refrain from any col- 
lections or enterprise for money-making. In such a spirit they set 
forth, and on the 17th of June, 1873, they landed at Liverpool. 
There news met them that two of the three gentlemen who had in- 
vited them to England had died. The third, who lived at York, ad- 
vised them to delay a month; but instead they hastened to that 
town the same night. All things human combined to discourage 
them. But their utter weakness was the promise of success, for it 
gave the Lord the opportunity to glorify himself by the mouth of 
his chosen messengers. 

Mr. Moody stood forth a plain man of the people. He was in 
thorough sympathy with the concerns of the great mass of humani- 
ty, and able to express religious truth in homely, vivid speech. He 
possessed a stalwart body and a grand vitality, which qualified him 
to undertake tremendous toils without danger to his health. A man 
of excellent executive capacity, and trained in the details of secu- 
lar and religious business, he was able to organize enterprises on a 
vast scale and to direct a multitude of assistants, so that congrega- 
tions of many thousands could be handled as quietly as an ordinary 
assembly. A natural, self-reliant man, warped by neither pride noh 
vanity, he was wont as a speaker to forget his own individuality in 
the hunger of his heart for the salvation of his hearers. A student 
of the Bible alone, and an unquestioning believer of its every state- 
ment as coming from the Lord; an evangelist bravely equipped for 
his responsible calling by years of personal experience with inquir- 
ers and doubters; a man of prayer, who was often in secret commun 
ion with the Lord of Hosts, refreshing his strength for the perpetual 
conflict of life, he was also, as the full fruition of these characteris- 
es 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 20 

tics, a Christian closely conformed to the image of his Master by 
the indwelling Spirit of God, and because he had withholden no 
part of his nature from an unreserved consecration to his will. 

This ministry for preaching and singing the gospel began in the 
cathedral town of York. At the first prayer-meeting, held on Sun- 
day morning in a small room of the Association building, only four 
persons were present; and Mr. Moody has characterized that as the 
best service he ever attended. The clergy looked coldly on the 
evangelists as intruders, and most of the churches were closed to 
them. They labored on bravely against these discouragements for a 
month, and were comforted by seeing above two hundred converts 
to Christ. Their work at Sunderland began on Sunday, July 27, at 
the invitation of a Baptist pastor. The ministers still held aloof, 
and even the Young Men's Christian Association eyed them sus- 
piciously for a week before offering the hand of fellowship. But 
the meetings steadily waxed larger. 

The evangelists were invited to Newcastle-on-the-Tyne by the 
chief ministers of that town, and were heartily sustained by the 
leaders of the congregations. And now Mr. Moody confessed his 
hope. " We are on the eve of a great revival which may cover 
Great Britain, and perhaps make itself felt in America. And why 
may not the fire burn as long as I live? When this revival spirit 
dies, may I die with it." His prophetic words met an immediate 
fulfillment. All th^ meetings were thronged with attentive listeners, 
and as many as thirty-four services were held in a single week. A 
noon-day prayer-meeting was organized, while special efforts were 
made to reach the factory hands and business men. An all-day 
meeting was held on September 10, wherein seventeen hundred par- 
ticipated. One hour was spent in Bible reading, another on the 
promises, and the last in an examination of what the Scriptures 
teach concerning Heaven. The town was wonderfully awakened, 
and every night sinners were drawn to the uplifted Savior. 

Edinburgh was prepared for the manifestation of a signal bless- 
ing by a series of union prayer-meetings held in October and No- 
vember, which softened and unified the hearts of Christians of va- 
rious names. Hence it was that the evangelists were welcomed in 
such a spirit of sympathy that captious criticism was unthought of. 
The ministry of song was an unheard-of innovation. Yet the rooted 
aversion of the Scottish people to the singing of aught but psalms 
gave way quickly to the evident testimony of the Spirit to the spirit- 
uality of his messages and the tenderness of his voice. On the 
first day, Sunday, November 23, the Music Hall was thronged with 
two thousand auditors, and many more were excluded. Five hun- 
dred met at noon on Monday for prayer, and that attendance was 
soon doubled. Meetings for inquirers were held after each service. 
Three hundred in the first week confessed their sins had been for- 



30 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

given. Their ages ranged from seventy-five to eleven. Students 
and soldiers, poor and rich, the backsliding, intemperate, and skepti- 
cal, were all represented. The largest halls were found to be too 
small to accommodate the eager audiences. A striking case of con- 
version was that of a notorious infidel, the chairman of a club of 
free-thinkers. He declared his utter disbelief in the value of prayer, 
and defied Mr Moody to test its power on him. The evangelist ac- 
cepted the' challenge in faith, and remembered him continually in 
his petitions till he heard of his finding Christ, months afterwards. 
An impressive watch-meeting was held on the last night of the year 
1873, and a special blessing was besought for the British people. 
The week of prayer, from the 4th to the 11th of January, 1874, was 
observed throughout all Scotland, as a season of united prayer for 
invoking the Lord to visit the nation, and the entire world in mercy. 
The most remarkable feature of this revival has been described as " the 
presence and the power of the Holy Ghost, the solemn awe, the prayer- 
ful, believing, expectant spirit, the anxious inquiry of unsaved souls, 
and the longing of believers to grow more like Christ — their hungering 
and thirsting after holiness." Similar characteristics have marked 
the advent of these yoke-fellows in every community. This mission 
in Edinburgh, which lasted till the 21st of January, 1874, resulted in 
adding three thousand to the city churches. 

At Dundee, meetings were held in the open air, at which from 
ten to sixteen thousand were present. Four hundred converts at- 
tended the meeting for praise and instruction. The city of Glasgow 
was reached on Sunday, February 8. The first audience consisted 
of three thousand Sunday-school teachers; the prayer-meeting 
opened with half that number. The Crystal Palace, which held 
above five thousand, was always crowded, though admission could 
only be had by ticket. To meet the emergency, special meetings 
were organized for young men and young women, inquirers, work- 
ingmen, and the intemperate. Seventeen thousand signatures to the 
pledge were secured here. So the work of awakening went on for 
three months, steadily increasing in power. On the last Sunday af- 
ternoon, a great audience of some twenty or thirty thousand gath- 
ered in the Palace garden, and hung on the words of Mr. Moody, as 
he spoke from the seat of a carriage. More than three thousand 
united to the city congregations, the large proportion of whom were 
under twenty-five. Short visits were then made to Paisley, Green- 
ock and Gourock. In the summer, a tour was taken through the 
Highlands, for the sowing of the seed of the word. Meetings were 
held in the open air at Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness, and elsewhere; 
and many souls were won. In Ireland, the common peoj3le heard 
the preacher gladly. The good work began at Belfast, on Sunday, 
September 6, 1874. To reach as many as possible, separate sessions 
were had for women and for men, for professing Christians, for the 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



31 



unconverted, and for inquirers, for young men and for boys. Huge 
gatherings were also addressed in the Botanic Garde is, a space of 
six acres being filled with attentive hearers. On Monday, Septem- 
ber 27, a remarkable meeting of eight hours for inquirers was held,, 
wherein above two hundred young men came unto Jesus and took 
his yoke upon them. And when the young converts were collected 
into a farewell meeting, tickets for 2150 were granted to such ap- 
plicants. 

Dublin, five-sixths of whose inhabitants were not Protestant,, 
awoke into a newness of religious life on the advent of the evange- 
lists. From the 25th of October to the 29th of November, the 
whole city was stirred in a wonderful way. The great Exhibition 
Palace contained audiences in the evenings and on Sundays of from 
twelve to fifteen thousand. At the prayer-meetings and Bible read- 
ings, the number often exceeded two thousand. Many Roman 
Catholics were attentive listeners, and parish priests as well. The 
stillness of these vast assemblies was very marked. Truly the Lord 
was faithful in answering the prayer Mr. Moody continually offers 
in private: "0 God, keep the people still, hold the meeting in thy 
hand." These labors ended with a three-days convention, at which 
eight hundred ministers attended, from all parts of Ireland. Above 
two thousand young converts confessed their new-born faith. 

Manchester for eight months had besought a blessing on its peo- 
ple; and these preparatory services were closed with a Communion 
in which two thousand Christians united. The month of December 
was devoted here to evangelistic work. In spite of the wintry 
weather, the halls were crowded, and overflow meetings had to be 
organized. Here, as elsewhere, the large proportion of men in attend- 
ance was noticeable. The city was mapped out into districts, and 
the duty of distributing cards at every dwelling was assigned to a 
large corps of volunteers. On one side of these was printed the 
hymn "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by;" and on the other, a short 
address by Mr. Moody, his text being Revelations 3: 20. The ef- 
forts of the Young Men's Christian Association to purchase a suita- 
ble building met with a cordial endorsement, and a fourth of the en- 
tire amount needed was obtained at the first public meeting. 

In Sheffield, the scheme of house-to-house visitation had to be 
abandoned, in order to secure the co-operation of the clergy of the 
Church of England. The opening meeting was held on New Year's 
eve, and the address in that watch-night service was upon Work. 
The great congregation, in response to Mr. Moody's request, finished 
the old year and began the new on their knees. For a fortnight, 
the dwellers in this industrial town collected in such numbers as to 
pack the halls and the sidewalks about them, so that the evangelist 
had frequently to speak in the open air. The work at Birmingham, 
"the toy-shop of the world," was also limited for lack of time. The 



32 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

spacious Town Hall was crowded on January 17, 1875; and for the 
other gatherings, even Bingley Hall, which held twelve thousand, 
proved too small. Another Christian convention was held, at which 
above a thousand ministers attended. Sixteen hundred converts 
received tickets to the special meeting for counsel. After pausing 
a week for a vacation, these lay apostles began their ministry of a 
month at Liverpool on February 7. Victoria Hall, a wooden struc- 
ture able to shelter eleven thousand, was expressly erected for their 
reception. It was crowded at all the night services, while an aver- 
age of six thousand attended the Bible lectures and noon meetings 
for prayer. These three services were held every day except Satur- 
day, when these devoted laborers took the rest which their over- 
taxed energies so imperatively demanded. The house-to-house visi- 
tation was resumed here, and eiforts were made to have a personal 
talk with the non-church goers. The corner-stone for the new hall 
of the Y. M. C. A. was laid, and a convention held for two days, 
which was largely attended by ministers and laymen. 

Four months were devoted to evangelizing the gigantic metropo- 
lis of London. Four centers were selected for preaching. Agricul- 
tural Hall, at Islington in north London, could seat 14,000, and give 
standing room for 6,000 more; Bow Road Hail, in the extreme east, 
had 10,000 sittings; the Royal Opera House, in the west end, was 
in the aristocratic quarter of Westminster; and Victoria Theatre, in 
the south, was used until Camberwell Hall was completed in June. 
This gospel campaign — the mightiest ever undertaken by any evan- 
gelist — was preceded by a course of union prayer-meetings for five 
months, that the Lord might prepare the way for a glorious manifes- 
tation of his power by purging the hearts of his own followers. A 
private conference was also held in advance with fifteen hundred of 
the city clergy, in order to explain the usual plan of procedure, and 
remove any misapprehensions that might exist. The whole city was 
parceled out for canvassing, and countless bands of yoke-fellows 
were sent out to leave at every dwelling the tract drawn up by Mr. 
Moody, and to tender an invitation to the services. Among these 
laborers was an old woman aged eighty-five years, who fulfilled her 
duties faithfully, and met everywhere words of kindness. This won- 
derful mission was opened on Tuesday evening, the 9th of March, 
at Islington. For a time, the services were met with mockery and 
ribald speeches without, by disorderly men and women. But these 
demonstrations soon subsided, as the real piety of the speakers be- 
came evident. Fully 80,000 attended the services of the first three 
days, and 45,000 heard the three addresses on the Sunday following. 
At the Royal Opera House, the nobility and gentry of England were 
directly reached by Bible readings, and members of the royal fami- 
ly were frequently present. The last gospel meeting was greater 
than any preceding, and a great number arose to receive the Lord 



MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 33 

Jesus Christ. The final meeting' of thanksgiving was held at Mild- 
may Park Conference Hall, on July 12. Seven hundred ministers 
were present to say farewell to the evangelist, whom they were so 
loath to see depart. Dr. A, Bonar tesified that the work of increase 
was still going on in Glasgow, with at least 7,000 members already 
added to its churches. Other ministers bore witness to the abundant 
fruit of the revival. Then, after silent prayer, the two evangelists 
hastily withdrew, not daring to expose themselves to the ordeal of 
parting with so many dear associates. They had held 285 meetings in 
London; these were, attended by fully 2,500,000 people; the expenses 
were $140,000. These companions came together at the final meet- 
ings in Liverpool. They sailed homeward on the 6th of August, at- 
tended by many loving prayers, and arrived in New York on the 14th. 

The gospel campaign in the Union began at Brooklyn, on Sunday, 
October 24, 1875, and continued there until November 19. The 
Rink, on Clermont Avenue, which had sittings for five thousand, was 
selected for the preaching services, while Mr. Talmage's tabernacle 
was devoted to prayer meetings. A choir of 250 Christian singers was 
led by Mr. Sankey. 

In Philadelphia a spacious freight depot, at Thirteenth and Mar- 
ket streets, was improvised to serve as a hall. Chairs were provid- 
ed for about 10,000 listeners, besides a chorus of six hundred singers 
seated on the platform. The expenses were met by voluntary con- 
tributions outside, which amounted to $30,000. A corps of three 
hundred Christians acted as ushers, and a like number of selected 
workers served in the three inquiry rooms. At the opening service, 
early on Sunday morning, November 21, nine thousand were pres- 
ent, in spite of a drenching storm. In the afternoon, almost twice 
as many were turned away as found entrance. Henceforth, until 
the close on January 16, the attendance and popular interest never 
slackened. A special service was held on Thanksgiving Day, and 
a watch-meeting on New Year's eve, from 9 to 12. Efforts were 
made to reach all classes of the community, and the meetings for 
young men were specially blessed. A careful computation puts the 
total attendance at 900,000, and the converts at 4,000. Before leav- 
ing the city, a collection was made on behalf of the new hall of the 
Young Men's Christian Association, and about $100,000 were ob- 
tained. A Christian convention was held on the 19th and 20th of 
January, and pertinent suggestions about the methods of evangelis- 
tic work were given for the benefit of the two thousand ministers 
and laymen in attendance from outlaying towns. 

For the mission in New York City, the Hippodrome at Madison 

and Fourth Avenues was leased, at a rental of $1,500 weekly, and 

$10,000 were expended in its preparation. It was partitioned into 

two halls, one seating 6,500, the other 4,000, the intent being to use 

3 



34 MOODY AND SAXKEY IX GEEAT BEITAIN. 

the second for overflow meetings, and so bring such large congre- 
gations more completely under the speaker's control. A choir of 
800 singers and corps of lay workers were organized. The deep 
concern of the people to hear the plain gospel preached and sung 
was as deep here among all classes as elsewhere, and the attendance 
was unflagging from February 7th to April 19th. Again a Christian 
conference was convened for two days, at which Christian workers 
from the North and East took counsel together. At the final meet- 
ing for young converts, 3,500 were present by ticket. 

Mr. Moody spent two weeks in May with his friend Major Whit- 
tle, at Augusta, Georgia, while Mr. Sankey took a rest at Newcastle. 
He preached with his usual fervor to large congregations. He trav- 
eled northward to Chicago by way of Nashville, Louisville, St. 
Louis and Kansas City, holding meetings on the way. His new 
church edifice on Chicago Avenue, was opened on his arrival. It 
was a large brick building with stone facings, measuring 120 by 100 
feet, and having a bell-tower 120 feet high. Its entire cost was 
8100,000, all of which was paid before its dedication. August and 
September were spent in a visit to the old Northfield homestead, and 
in little tours to Greenfield, Springfield and Brattleboro. 

Chicago gave the heartiest welcome to its own Moody and Sankey 
in October, where they resumed the mission work suspended by 
them three years before. A tabernacle was erected which could 
shelter 10,000, and a choir of 300 singers was organized. The city 
pastors gave a most cordial support, audits populace, many of whom 
had seen their homes twice burnt to the ground, were eager to listen 
to the earnest messages of free salvation. The great Northwest was 
now moved, as never before, especially when tidings came of the 
sudden death of Philip P. Bliss and his wife at Ashtabula on De- 
cember 29. Within three months 4,800 converts were recorded in 
Chicago. 

The evangelical Christians of Boston had long been waiting on 
the Lord for a special blessing on their city. A permanent brick 
edifice was built on Tremont Street, able to seat a congregation of 
six thousand. Dr. Tourjee gathered a body of two thousand Chris- 
tian singers, and organized it into five distinct choirs. The thought- 
ful addresses of Rev. Joseph Cook were of use in preparing that cul- 
tured and critical city for the advent of the evangelists. And the 
result of the religious services was almost beyond expectation. In- 
stead of a single noon meeting for prayer, seven or eight sprang up 
throughout the city, with numbers varying from 200 to 1,500. 
Ninety churches co-operated in a house-to-house visitation, and 
2,000 visitors were enrolled into these bands of yoke-fellows. 
Throughout all New England, the quickened activities of the 
churches were unmistakable. And the evangelical faith met a more 
respectful hearing from its thinking classes than had been witnessed 
for a hundred years. 




cp^UJW 



D. W. WHITTLE. 

" Maj. Whittle," as his old army friends love to call him, has for 
many years been a well-known business man of Chicago, where his 
integrity, activity, and efficiency, earned for him a high regard in 
the consideration of his business associates. This place, with 
large business prospects, he resigned at what he believed to be the 
call of God, to enter upon the evangelistic work. His career during 
the past few years is well before the public. He is, perhaps, better 
known throughout the country as the companion of the " sweet 
singer" and author — Philip Paul Bliss. His first effort in con- 
nection with Mr. Bliss was made five years ago, in a small town 
near Chicago. It was on this occasion that he told the story, " Hold 
the Fort," which Mr. Bliss has rendered immortal. Maj. Whittle 
began modestly in small meetings and has pressed his way on to 
a place close beside the prince of evangelists, D. L. Moody. These 
two brothers are not without points of similarity as well as of con- 
trast. There is in each a singleness of purpose by which their work 
is carried out and away from everything else, and stands above all 
human interests in its soul-absorbing grandeur as the chiseled 
Sphinx stands above the desert's sands. That work is winning 
souls. Everything that would obscure it is held severely aside. 
They are not unlike in certain mental traits. In each there is mark- 
ed intellectual vigor, a certain natural logic which holds the subject 
well in hand. In the latter quality, Mr. Whittle is undoubtedly Mr. 
Moody's superior. Mr. Moody's may be described as the logic of a 
present purpose. Mr. Whittle's as the logic of his subject. Mr. 
Moody has a more vivid imagination. Mr. Whittle a subtler analyti- 
cal power. Mr. Moody has more power over a great audience. 
Mr. Whittle is more irresistible in a debate. Mr. Moody preaches 
more like the Apostle John. Mr. Whittle more Mke the Apostle 
Paul. 

In the inquiry room Maj. Whittle is especially successful and hap- 
py. Eminently wise and judicious in the management of it, his 
personal instruction is clear as sunlight, and his manner overflows 
with sympathy and love. He is but at the beginning of his career, 
and, in the providence of God, there is doubtless opening before 
him a path of distinguished success. 

35 



PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 

Philip Paul Bliss was the author, under God, of a large part of 
the most popular hymns and music that were used by the two Amer- 
ican evangelists in their mighty labors for awakening and evangelizing 
the English world. By general acceptation, he has been hailed as 
the Charles Wesley of the Nineteenth century. Mr. Moody, in a 
loving tribute to the beauty of his life and character, testifies: " I 
believe he was raised up of God to write hymns for the Church of 
Christ in this age, as Charles Wesley was for the church in his clay. 
His songs have gone around the world, and have lead and will con- 
tinue to lead hundreds of souls to Christ. In my estimation, he was 
the most highly honored of God, of any man of his time, as a writer 
and singer of gospel songs; and with all his gifts he was the most 
humble man I ever knew. I loved him as a brother, and shall cher- 
ish his memorjr, giving praise to God for the grace manifested in him, 
while life lasts. 

The ancestors of P. P. Bliss were emigrants from Wales, and were 
numbered among the early settlers of Connecticut, where their first 
marriage record dated back to 1670. His grandfather settled in the 
wilderness of Saratoga county, New York, in 1788. His father, Isaac, 
whom his son calls "the best man I ever knew," was a poor man, 
but a devout, simple-hearted Puritan; a trustful, joyful, singing 
saint. Philip was born in the log homestead, in Clearfield county, 
Pennsylvania, on the 9th of July, 1838. When he was six years old, 
his father removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, and returned into 
Pennsylvania three years later, settling finally in Tioga county. 
Thus the boy passed his earlier years in frontier clearings, where the 
opportunities for schooling were very scanty. He lived much un- 
der the open sky, amid the inspiring scenes of a mountainous district, 
and as a rambler through the forest and by the torrents. As a child, 
it delighted him to take part with his father in singing some of the 
grand old revival hymns, such as "Come ye sinners poor and needy," 
and "Come, ye that love the Lord." He could easily master a new 
tune, and whistle it, or thrum it out on some hand-made in- 
strument. At the age of eleven, he set out from home to work on 
a farm, carrying his spare clothing tied up in a handkerchief. Four 
years later he was in a lumber-camp cutting logs, and soon after, he 
was engaged in a saw-mill. Meanwhile, the spare time in every 
season found him a diligent scholar in the district school, for he was 
eagerly desirous of acquiring an education. At the age of eighteen, 
his studious habits and manliness of character led to his ap, ointment 
36 



PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 3? 

as teacher at Hartsville, Alleghany county, New York. Two years 
later, he taught in the academy at Rome, Pennsylvania. 

At Rome, he became acquainted with Miss Lucy J. Young, then 
aged eighteen, and they were married on the 1st of June, 1859. Ma- 
jor Whittle in his appreciative Memoir ', to which we are much in- 
debted in this sketch, thus outlines the personality of this young and 
happy pair: "Mrs. Bliss was in many things the opposite and the 
complement of her husband. He was by nature poetical, impulsive, 
demonstrative, easily moved; she was strongly practical, reticent, 
and with great adherence of purpose. She was both wife and mother 
to him from the first of their union. She was of a deep nature, 
loving, tender in her affection, beyond what most who knew her gave 
her credit for. His buoyant, joyful, affectionate, warm-hearted dem- 
onstrativeness naturally made her more reserved manner seem con- 
strained; but all who learned to know her loved and admired her, 
and thanked God that Philip Bliss had such a wife. 

Mrs. Bliss was already a member of the Presbyterian church, and 
her husband united himself to the same congregation, while also serv- 
ing as superintendent of a union Sunday-school in Rome. His act- 
ual conversion however, must be antedated many years. Indeed, he 
appears to have been a child of God when very young, as his per- 
sonal experience was that he could never remember the time when 
he did not love the Savior. At the age of twelve, he had openly 
confessed Christ, and had been baptized in the creek at Ells Run by 
a Baptist minister. 

Mr. Bliss' wealth at the time of his marriage consisted almost 
wholly of a sound mind in a sound body. His active life had secured 
him a stalwart and fine physique, while his handsome features, 
spirited eyes, and emotional nature gave promise of powers of men- 
tality as yet undeveloped. For a year, he worked on the farm of his 
father-in-law, for the ordinary wages of thirteen dollars a month. 
His passion for music had been intensified by an attendance at a 
musical convention held in Rome, by W. B. Bradbury, in 1857, and 
he was now earnestly desirous of qualifying himself to become a 
teacher of music. The opportunity of attending a summer session 
of six weeks at the "Normal Academy of Music," held at Geneseo, 
N. Y., in 1860, was afforded him through the sympathy of his wife's 
grandmother, who emptied out for him the silver savings of a good 
many years. He profited so well by this start that he was able in 
the following winter to become a professional music teacher, while 
his summers were still spent in working on the farm. So passed 
tranquilly and happily, some years of unconscious training for the 
Lord's service. Mr. Bliss was diligent in continuing his studies, and 
prospered so that he was able to save a few hundred dollars. With 
this money he bought a little cottage, and removed his aged parents 
from the backwoods to his own home. Here his humble-minded 



38 PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 

father spent the last years of his life, thanking God for giving him 
a better home on earth than he had ever expected to have. 

Mr. Bliss wrote his first musical composition in the summer of 
1864. It was a song of tender sentiment, entitled " Lora Vale," 
and was published in sheet form by Root & Cady, of Chicago. Its 
popularity led to his venture before the public in a series of concerts, 
in which he achieved a fair success. In December, 1865, being- 
then aged twenty-seven, he was permanently engaged by the 
firm of Root & Cady, and removed his family to Chicago. " He 
went to work," records Mr. Geo. F. Root, "first about the 
State, holding musical conventions and giving concerts, and 
attending to the interests of certain parts of our business; send- 
ing to us occasional communications for our musical paper, and 
occasional compositions. I do not recall particulars about these 
compositions. I only know that it was my pleasure to look them 
over and suggest, if I could, improvements, or hint at faults now 
and then, especially in the earlier ones. I say my pleasure, for 
never had teacher so teachable and docile a subject for criticism (I 
can hardly say pupil, for I never taught him regularly), nor one who 
repaid with such generous affection the small services that were in 
this way rendered to him. I do not know of his modes or habits of 
composition, but do know of his wonderful fertility and facility. 
His responses to the calls for the many kinds of literary and musical 
work that we soon found he could do always surprised us as much by 
their promptness as by their uniform excellence. It was lovely to see 
how near to all he did was his religion. There was for him no line 
on one side of which was a bright face and on the other a solemn one. 
His smile went into his religion and his religion into his smile." 
And Mr. F. W. Root, another associate, describes his personal and 
mental gifts as wonderful. <; His faculty for seizing upon the salient 
features of whatever oame under his notice amounted to an unerring 
instinct. The one kernel of wheat in a bushel of chaff was the first 
thing he saw. Examine the work which really enlisted his whole 
soul, and you will see nothing but keen discernment, rare taste, and 
great verbal facility. His gospel hymns contain no pointless verses, 
awkward rhythms, or forced rhymes, but, on the contrary, they glow 

with all that gives life to such composition Mr. Bliss' 

voice was always a marvel to me. He used occasionally to come to my 
room, requesting that I would look into his vocalization with a view 
to suggestions. At first a few suggestions were made, but latterly 
I could do nothing but admire. Beginning with E flat, or even D 
flat below, he would, without apparent effort, produce a series of 
clarion tones, in an ascending series, until having reached the D 
(fourth line tenor clef) I would look to see him weaken and give up, 
as would most bass singers; but no, on he would go, taking D sharp, 
E, F, I? sharp and 6?, without weakness, without throatyness, with- 



PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 39 

out a sound of straining, and without the usual apopleptic look of 
effort. I feel quite safe in saying that his chest range was from D 
flat below to A flat above, the quality being strong and agreeable 
throughout and one vowel as good as another. He would have 
made name and fortune on the dramatic stage, had he chosen that 
profession and studied a more scientific class of music than that in 
which he chose to work." 

Several years elapsed after his removal to the West before Mr. 
Bliss became directly connected with Christian efforts. He first met 
Mr. Moody in the summer of 1869, and henceforth gave what musi- 
cal aid he could find time for in his various meetings. A year later 
he became leader of the choir of the First Congregational Church 
of Chicago, of which Rev. Dr. Goodwin was pastor. His principle 
of action in that position has been thus stated by that minister: "He 
believed that all who led in the service of song should sing with 
grace in their hearts; that the music should be strictly spiritual 
music — not selections made on grounds of taste, high musical char- 
acter, but selections aimed at honoring God, exalting Jesus Christ, 
magnifying his gospel; music, in a word, that God's Spirit could 
wholly own and use to comfort, strengthen, and inspire God's peo- 
ple, and lead unsaved souls to Christ. Accordingly the highest de- 
votional character marked all his selections, all his rehearsals, all his 
leadership in the Lord's house." As superintendent of its Sunday- 
school, he exercised an astonishing influence over children, winning 
their sympathy and hearts by the power of genial love, and leading 
very many to accept Jesus as their Savior. His addresses were terse, 
pointed, and illustrated with vivid anecdotes, so that young and old 
could not fail to be impressed by the spiritual truths sought to be con- 
veyed. At this period he prepared his books of song. " The 
Charm, a Collection of Sunday-school Music," was published in 
1871. " The Song Tree," a collection of parlor and concert music, 
appeared in 1872; "Sunshine for Sunday Schools," in 1873; and 
" The Joy," for conventions and church choirs, in 1873. 

In the winter of 1873-4, repeated solicitations from Mr. Moody, 
who was then busied in Scotland, induced Major D. W. Whittle and 
P. P. Bliss to prayerfully consider the duty and privilege of sur- 
rendering all their business prospects and consecrating themselves 
unreservedly as evangelists to the service of the Master. After wait- 
ing on the Lord for guidance, they set forth in faith to test the 
reality of their call by a series of three evening meetings at Wauke- 
gan, Illinois. The first was but poorly attended; the second, though 
the night was stormy, had twice as many listeners, and a number 
began to inquire the way to be saved. The next afternoon these 
yoke-fellows spent some hours in prayer, and made a complete sur- 
render of themselves to the Lord. Bliss gave up all his professional 
engagements, the certain prospect of attaining a high reputa- 



40 PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 

tion, an easy competence, and a settled home. Whittle resigned a 
salary of five thousand dollars in the Chicago office of the Elgin 
Watch Company. Together they committed their ways unto God,, 
that he might use them for the good of their countrymen. During 
that year they visited towns in Illinois and Wisconsin, as well as 
Detroit and Pittsburgh. In 1875, they labored in Chicago, Louis- 
ville, and Lexington, Nashville, and Memphis, St. Paul and Minne- 
apolis, and Milwaukee. In 1876 they were called to Racine and 
Madison, in Wisconsin; St. Louis, Mobile, Montgomery, and Selma, 
in Alabama; Augusta, Georgia; Kalamazoo and Jackson, Michigan;, 
and Peoria, Illinois. 

For this life mission of evangelization, Mr. Bliss prepared " Gospel 
Songs, a Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes, New and Old." 
These were selected in the spirit of prayer, and include only those 
which revival experiences had proven to be blessed. Most of them 
were naturally from his own inspired pen. It appears undeniable 
that he was the Christian Psalmist of this century, the one providen- 
tially raised up " to lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes" 
of Zion in this gospel awakening. In the preparation of " Gospel 
Hymns and Sacred Songs," in 1875, he was a co-editor with Mr. 
Sankey ; and the like fraternal co-operation was exhibited in " Gospel 
Hymns No. 2," issued in time for the services at Boston. Of these little 
books millions of copies were sold. Yet, in order to remove every 
ground for a popular misapprehension that the evangelists were in- 
tent on money-making, he waived his share in the copyrights. Thus 
fully sixty thousand dollars of royalty, which belonged of right to 
Sankey and Bliss, were bestowed on deserving charities. Even the 
little proportion of five thousand dollars, which Mr. Moody sought 
later to urge upon him for the purchase of a home for his family, 
was steadfastly declined. 

This joyous and versatile singer, musician and speaker peculiarly 
excelled as the poet of Gospel song. His genius, as clarified by 
the indwelling spirit, possessed the rare faculty of embodying the 
deepest and most solemn truths or God's Word, and the spiritual ex- 
periences of the Christian's heart, in hymns of such crystal transpar- 
ency that the sinner and the child of God alike could receive into 
their souls a profound realization of the sacredness and the lovable- 
ness of the messages of the gospel. "After his consecration to 
Christ for his service in saving souls," relates Major Whipple, " Mr. 
Bliss' experience crystalized more and more into an apprehension of 
a personal Savior. Christ risen — Christ ever present with us; Jesus, 
the real, living, personal Jesus of the gospels, came closer and clos- 
er to him. His communion with Christ was uninterrupted. x\nd 
his songs in these days abounded with Christ. The last year of his 
life, nearly all the songs he wrote contain the three themes of gospel 
testimony: Christ died for our sins; he lives for our justification; 




"P T?"f3tu*t. 



PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 41 

he is coming again in a glory which we are to share. He did not plan 
these hymns with any purpose to teach these truths, and was sur- 
prised himself when his attention was called to the fact of the uni- 
formity of their testimony in these directions. He simply wrote of 
what filled his own heart and had come to his own soul." . Mr. San- 
key, whose opportunities for passing a judgment are unrivaled, 
writes: "The first of Mr. Bliss' hymns that became popular in 
Great Britain was, ' Jesus Loves Even Me,' and more than any 
other hymn, it became the key-note of our meetings there. The 
next song which became immensely popular was, ' Hold the Fort,' 
and it is to-day, perhaps, the most popular sacred song in England 
or America. I should think Mr. Bliss' ' Almost Persuaded' has won 
more souls to the Savior than any other hymn written by him." 

"Hold the Fort" was founded on an incident of the late war,, 
which has been thus graphically described by Mr. Moody: " I am 
told that when General Sherman went through Atlanta towards the 
sea — through the Southern States — he left in the fort on the Kene- 
saw Mountain a little handful of men to guard some rations that he 
brought there. And General Hood got into the outer rear and 
attacked the fort, drove the men in from the outer works into the 
inner works, and for a long time the battle raged fearfully. Half of 
the men were either killed or wounded; the general who was in 
command was wounded seven different times; and when they were 
about ready to run up the white flag and surrender the fort, Sherman 
got within fifteen miles, and through the signal corps on the moun- 
tain he sent the message: 'Hold the fort; I am coming. W. T. 
Sherman.' That message fired up their hearts, and they held the 
fort till reinforcements came, and the fort did not go into the hands 
of their enemies." It was first narrated in public by Major Whittle 
in 1870, and was at once popularized by his companion. Six years 
later these yoke-fellows visited Kenesaw Mountain, where they 
read the promises of the Lord's second coming, knelt in prayer, 
and then united in singing this battle -hymn of the Christian. 

" Let the Lower Lights be Burning" had its origin in this sad ac- 
cident: "A few years ago at the mouth of Cleveland harbor there 
were two lights, one at each side of the bay, called the upper and 
lower lights; and to enter the harbor safely by night, vessels must 
sight both of the lights. These western lakes are more dangerous 
sometimes than the great ocean. One wild, stormy night, a steam- 
er was trying to make her way into the harbor. The captain and 
pilot were anxiously watching for the lights. By and by the pilot 
was heard to say, ' Do you see the lower lights?' 'No,' was the re- 
ply; 'I fear we have passed them.' c Ah, there are the lights,' said 
the pilot; ' and they must be, from the bluff on which they stand, 
the upper lights. We have passed the lower lights, and have lost 
our chance of getting into the harbor.' What was to be done? 



42 PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 

They looked back, and saw the dim outline of the lower lighthouse 
against the sky. The lights had gone out. ' Can't you turn your 
head around?' 'No; the night is too wild for that. She won't an- 
swer to her helm.' The storm was so fearful that they could do 
nothing. They tried again to make for the harbor, but they went 
•crash against the rocks, and sank to the bottom. Very few escaped; 
the great majority found a watery grave. Why? Simply because 
the lower lights had gone out. Now with us the upper lights are 
all right. Christ himself is the upper light, and we are the lower 
lights, and the cry to us is, Keep the lower lights burning; that is 
what we have to do. He will lead us safe to the sunlit shore of 
Canaan, where there is no more night." 

" More to Follow" was derived from another story told by Mr. 
Moody. A rich man in Rowland Hill's congregation wanted to 
help a poor member, and so he sent some money to a friend to be 
used wisely for his benefit. " The friend just sent him five pounds, 
and said in the note: 'This is thine; use it wisely; there is more to 
follow.' After a while he sent another five pounds and said, ' More 
to follow.' Again and again he sent the money to the poor man, al- 
ways with the cheering words, ' More to follow.' So it is with the 
wonderful grace of God. There is always ' more to follow.' " 

" Whosoever Will May Come," which was written in the winter 
of 1869-70, sprang from the memorable sermons of Henry More- 
house upon that inexhaustible text: " God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten Son, that vjhosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." — John 3:16. "Jesus 
Loves Even Me" was composed in June, 1870. Mr. Bliss at the 
time said that he was tired of singing of his poor love to God, and he 
now wished to sing of God's wonderful love for him. He further 
remarked to Major Whittle "that the peace and comfort of a Chris- 
tian were not founded upon his loving Christ, but upon Christ's love 
for him, and that to occupy the mind with Christ's love would pro- 
duce love and consecration in keeping with Romans 5: 5: 'The 
love of God (to us) is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, 
which is given to us." " Almost Persuaded" was suggested by the 
closing words of a sermon by Rev. Mr. Brundage: "He who is 
almost persuaded is almost saved; but to be almost saved is to be 
entirely lost." " Pull for the Shore, Sailor" sprang from the tale of 
a wreck, which went down just after the captain and sixeeen sailors 
were taken off by a life-boat. " When the life-boat came to you," 
asked a friend, "did you expect it had brought some tools to repair 
your old ship?" " Oh, no," was the reply, "she was a total wreck; 
two of her masts were gone, and if we had stayed mending her only 
a few minutes, we must have gone down." "When once off the old 
wreck and safe in the life-boat, what remained for you to do?" 
u Nothing, but just to pull for the shore." 



PHILIP PAUL BLISS. 43 

The death of P. P. Bliss and his wife was almost like a translation 
to heaven by a chariot of fire. That Christian poet was permitted 
to spend several weeks with Moody and Sankey in Chicago, and to 
edit " Gospel Hymns No. 2" with the latter. At that time he agreed 
with Major Whittle to resume their places on their departure, and 
also to visit England later. He passed Christmas with his mother 
and sister at Towanda, Pa., and then hastened toward Chicago with 
Mrs. Bliss, leaving their two little sons at Rome. But that railroad 
train of eleven cars crashed through the bridge over Ashtabula 
river on the night of December 29, and fell down seventy feet, a 
shapeless mass. They were in the first parlor car, and were either 
crushed at once or else consumed by the conflagration that arose 
from the stoves. The most diligent search failed to recover their 
remains. Our whole nation sympathized with the evangelists at Chi- 
cago in their great sorrow. The Sunday schools joined in a spon- 
taneous collection for the benefit of the orphaned children, and 
$10,000 were collected in a few weeks. 



REV. JOSEPH COOK. 

It happened, through the overruling providence of God, that an 
admirable coadjutor to prepare the way for Mr. Moody's advent in 
Boston, by awakening the minds of its thoughtful and skeptical cit- 
izens to give a respectful hearing to the claims of the gospel, as well 
as to co-operate with that evangelist, and continue the good work 
after his departure, was raised up in the person of Rev. Joseph 
Cook. That gentleman was born at Ticonderoga, in the northeast- 
ern section of New York, in 1838. He was prepared for college at 
Phillips' Academy, and then entered Yale College. The attraction 
of Harvard was more powerful, however, and he graduated from the 
latter institution in 1865. He next passed to Andover Theological 
Seminary, and completed its course of study for the ministry three 
years later. For two years he filled vacancies in the pulpits of Con- 
gregational churches at East Abingdon, Mass., Middlebury, Vt., and 
Maiden, Mass. Then his passion for a profound study of the deep 
problems of religious -life and thought, led him abroad as a student 
to profit by the curriculum of the German universities, and by a per- 
sonal association with their foremost evangelical divines. After his 
return, he became for a short time associate minister of the First 
Church, Lynn. When that edifice was burned, he turned to a 
music hall, and there lectured impressively on the evils of the facto- 
ry system and of intemperance. 

Thus were spent the formative years of his manhood, in severe and 
conscientious study, that he might be fitted to grapple understand- 
ing!^ with the mightiest questions that divided the minds of his gen- 
eration, and upon whose correct decision hung the welfare of untold 
numbers. A fellow minister, Rev. William. M. Baker, says of him as 
a student: "It might be said that amid the harvests of books he 
wields the flail with an arm as muscular as that which holds the 
sickle, that he has a singularly quick perception as to what is ripe 
and wholesome wheat for food among the chaff, but this would be 
only a part of the truth. The fact is, the energy and the discrimina- 
tion of the man are owing to the instinct, so to speak, in him of one 
supreme purpose, which is to find for himself and others, among the 
very latest results of all thought, scientific and philosophic, those ul- 
timate facts which are also, as he thinks, the highest food — food for 
the intellect and the heart, because for the undying soul." 

Early in 1876, Mr. Cook found his congenial and fitting field of 
labor. Under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Associa 
44 




REV. JOSEPH COOK. 



BEV. JOSEPH COOK. 45 

fcion of Boston, he began a course of Monday lectures, at the Meio- 
naon, in the basement of Tremont Temple. As the hour was from 
noon till one P. M., the general subject " Modern Skepticism," 
and the speaker, by his intellectual calibre and thorough scholarship, 
was admirably fitted to confront and deny the fundamental princi- 
ples of error involved in the destructive teachings of the school of 
Theodore Parker, it soon chanced that the unknown lecturer came to 
hold entranced a large and highly cultured audience, many of whom 
were city clergymen. In an easy, conversational style, and in clear, 
terse language, he gave utterance to the weightiest thoughts and 
most substantial arguments. A hearer describes him as quoting 
freely from his extensive reading; his memory seeming to retain in 
wonderful variety, like a magnet drawn through it all, that which is 
of the nature of his own thought, and that from authors wholly op- 
posed in general to orthodoxy, some of the most genuine sensations 
of the hour being the unexpected testimony of Goethe, Carlyle, Em- 
erson, as well as the German rationalists, to the truth he is advo- 
cating, the effort of the speaker being to get at the undermost and 
innermost soul of his hearer by repeating the deepest and most in- 
tuitive soul of the profoundest thinkers of every land and age." In 
the fall, the lectures were resumed, and the great theological prob- 
lems were considered. But the throng of auditors soon drove the 
lecturer from the Meionaon to Park Street church, and from thence 
to Tremont Temple itself, where week after wook accommodations 
for three thousand people failed to satisfy. 

Mr. Cook has been pictured as possessing a massive and athletic 
frame, whose strong vitality is wrought upon by a highly nervous- 
sanguine temperament, as evidenced by his sandy hair, ruddy cheeks, 
blue eyes, and intense earnestness. A sympathetic friend, Rev. Ed- 
ward Abbott, thus sketches him as a lecturer: " He handles brief 
notes, wherein his important propositions are accurately written, but 
he is essentially an extemporaneous speaker, an orator of the fervid 
and impassioned order, not without peculiarities which some critics of 
the schools would call faults; but eloquent, grandly eloquent, in the 
sense that he makes men hear his message, and often persuades them 
of its truth. In theology, a moderate Calvinist; in philosophy, an 
eclectic; in learning, affluent; full of sympathies for all who are in any 
sense oppressed; a hater of cant in all its forms; familiar with the best 
thoughts of the best minds of all times; a brilliant rhetorician, and 
yet never allowing the clearness and percision of his logical processes 
to be obscured by the play of his marvelous fancy; with all these, 
and many more qualities which might be mentioned, it may readily be 
imagined that he is a speaker to whom men love to listen. This 
description will sound extravagant to those who have never heard 
him; but it is wholly within the limits of sobL-r truth." 

The pulpit at the Boston Tabernacle was repeatedly filled by Mr. 



40 REV. JOSEPH COOK. 

Cook, at Mr. Moody's invitation. To its vast audiences he deliver- 
ed impressive sermons on such topics as "Certainties in Religion;" 
" The Atonement a Motive to Conversion;" and "Faith the Source 
of Faithfulness." From the first of these, we take the following ex- 
tract: 

" When Ulysses sailed past the isle of the Sirens, who had the 
power of charming by their songs all who listened to them, he heard 
the sorcerous music on the shore, and to prevent himself and his 
crew from landing, he filled their ears with wax, and bound himself 
to the mast with knotted thongs. Thus, according to the subtle 
Grecian story, he passed safely the fatal strand. But when Orpheus, 
in search of the Golden Fleece, went by this island, he — being, as 
you remember, a great musician — set up better music than that of 
the Sirens, enchanted his crew with a melody superior to the allur- 
ing song of the sea-nymphs, and so, without needing to fill the Ar- 
gonauts' ears with wax, or to bind himself to the mast with knotted 
thongs, he passed the sorcerous shore not only safely, but with dis- 
dain. 

" The ancients, it is clear from this legend, understood the dis- 
tinction between morality and religion. He who, sailing past the 
island of temptation, has enlightened selfishness enough not to land, 
although he rather wants to [sensation]; he who, therefore, binds 
himself to the mast with knotted thongs, and fills the ears of his 
crew with wax; he who does this without hearing a better music, is 
the man of mere morality. Heaven forbid that I should underrate 
the value of this form of cold prudence, for wax is not useless' in 
giddy ears, and Aristotle says youth is a perpetual intoxication. 
Face to face with Sirens, thongs are good, though songs are better. 

Sin hath long ears. Good is wax ; 

Wise at times the knotted thongs ; 
But the shrewd no watch relax, 

Yet they use. like Orpheus, songs, 
They no more the Sirens fear ; 

They a better music hear. 

" When a man of tempestuous, untrained spirit must swirl over 
amber and azure and purple seas, past the isle of the Sirens, and 
knots himself to the mast of outwardly right conduct by the thongs 
of safe resolutions, although as yet duty is not his delight, he is near 
to virtue. He who spake as never mortal spake saw such a young- 
man once, and, looking on him, loved him, and yet said, as the na- 
ture of things says also, ' One thing thou lackest.' Evidently he to 
whom duty is not a delight does not possess the supreme pre-requis- 
ite of peace. In the presence of the Siren shore we can never be at 
rest while we rather wish to land, although we resolve not to do so. 
Only he who has heard a better music than that of the Sirens, and 
who is affectionately glad to prefer the higher to the lower good, is,. 



REV. JOSEPH COOK. 4^ 

or in the nature of things can be, at peace. Morality is Ulysses 
bound to the mast. Religion is Orpheus listening to a better mel- 
ody, and passing with disdain the sorcerous shore. [Applause.] 

"Aristotle was asked once what the decisive proof is that a man 
has acquired a good habit. His answer was, 'The fact that the prac- 
tice of the habit involves no self-denial of predominant force among- 
the faculties.' Assuredly that is keen, but Aristotle is rightly called 
the surgeon. Until we do love virtue so that the practice of it in- 
volves no self-denial of that sort, it is scientifically incontrovertable 
that we can not be at peace. In the very nature of things, while 
Ulysses wants to land, wax and thongs can not give him rest. In 
the very nature of things, only a better music, only a more ravishing 
melody, can preserve Orpheus in peace. This truth may *be stern 
and unwelcome, but the Greek mythology and the Greek philosophy 
which thus unite to affirm it are as luminous as the noon." 

The value of the historic Awakenings in America has been graph- 
ically shown by his illustration of the rightful part played by en- 
thusiasm in religion: 

"It would be a sad whim in the art of metallurgy if men should 
take up the notion that a white heat is not useful in annealing 
metals; and so it is a sad whim in social science when men think 
that the white heat we call a religious awakening is not useful in 
annealing society. Twice this nation has been annealed in the relig- 
ious furnace just previously to being called on to perform majestic 
civil duties. You remember that the thirsty, seething, tumultuous, 
incalculably generative years from 1753 to 1783, or from the opening 
of the French war to the close of the Revolution, were preceded by 
what is known to history as the Great Awakening in New England 
in 1740 under Whitefield and Edwards. So, too, in 1857, when we 
were on the edge of our civil war, the whole land was moved relig- 
iously, and thus prepared to perform for itself and for mankind the 
sternest of all the political tasks that have been imposed in this cen- 
tury upon any civilized people. But our short American story is no 
exception to the universal experiences of social annealing." 

"Discussing the subtler meaning of the Reformation, Carlyle says: 
'Once risen into this divine white heat of temper, were it only for a 
season and not again, a nation is thenceforth considerable through 
all its remaining history. What immensities of dross and crypto-poi- 
sonous matter will it not burn out of itself in that high temperature 
in the course of a few years ! Witness Cromwell and his Puritans, 
making England habitable even under the Charles Second terms for 
a couple of centuries more. Nations are benefited, I believe, for 
ages by being thrown once into divine white heat in this manner.' " 

"That is the historical law for nations, for cities, for individuals. 
Do not be afraid of a white heat; it is God's method of burning out 
dross. [Applause.] 



48 REV. JOSEPH COOK. 

" Standing where Whitefield stood on the banks of the Charles, a 
somewhat unlettered but celebrated evangelist years ago, face to face 
with the culture of Harvard, was accused of leading audiences into 
excitement. c I have heard,' said he, in reply, c of a traveler who 
saw at the side of the way a woman weeping and beating her breast. 
He ran to her and asked, "What can I do for you? What is the 
cause of your anguish?" "My child is in the well! My child is in 
the well!" With swiftest despatch assistance was given and the child 
rescued. Further on this same traveler met another woman, wailing 
also and beating her breast. He came swiftly to her, and with great 
earnestness asked, "What is your trouble?" "My pitcher is in the 
well! My pitcher is in the well!" Our great social and political ex- 
citements are all about pitchers in wells, and our religious excite- 
ments are about children in wells.' [Laughter and applause.] 
A rude metaphor, you say, to be used face to face with Harvard; but 
a distinguished American professor, repeating that anecdote in Halle, 
on the Saale, in Germany yonder, Julius Muller heard it and repeated 
it in his university, and it has been used among devout scholars all 
over Germany. Starting here on the banks of the Charles, and 
listened to, I presume, very haughtily by Cambridge and Boston, it 
has taken root in a deep portion of German literature as one of the 
classical illustrations of the value of a white heat. [Applause.]" 

And as one more illustration of the fervid intensity of his oratory 
we append his lines summing up the argument of 

A PERSONAL GOD. 

Bounds of sun-groups none can see ; 
Worlds God droppetk on His knee; 
Galaxies that loftiest swarm 
Float before a loftier Form. 

Mighty the speed of suns and worlds, 
Mighty Who these onward hurls ; 
Pure the conscience' fiery baih, 
Purer fire God's lightning hath. 

Brighter He who maketh bright 
Jasper, beryl, chrysolite ; 
Lucent more than they, Whose hands 
Girded up Orion's bands. 

Sweet the spring, but sweeter still 
He who doth its censers fill ; 
Good is love, but better Who 
Giveth love its power to woo. 

Lo ! the Maker, greater He, 
Better than His works, must be; 
Of the works the lowest stair 
Thought can scale, but fainteth there. 

Thee, with all our strength and heart, 
God, we love for what 'i hou ait; 
Ravished we, obedient now, 
Only, only Perfect Thou. 




^O^A^J^^Sl^oS&^^L. 



MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD, 

of Chicago, is a devoted and eloquent speaker and worker in the gos- 
pel harvest-field. Her transparent spirituality of mind and life, un- 
tiring zeal, and continual study of God's Word are combined with 
all the modest graces and tender sympathies of Christian ladyhood. 
One of her associates writes: "Her temperate, simple manner, 
clear, melodious voice, and rare command of language, her deep 
Christian experience, wide culture, vigor of thought and versatile 
genius, make her a most attractive speaker for the thoughtful. 
Though still young, Miss Willard has been for years a close student 
of literature and art, has occupied prominent positions East and 
West as an educator, has seen much of what is worth seeing in her 
own and other lands, and has now devoted all her time for some 
years to the work of Christian beneficence. She belongs to a fami- 
ly of New England origin, who number among their ancestors many 
eminent names, some of whom have been well known in Boston." 
In the "Garden City," where she lives in a little cottage home with 
her aged mother, who is now past threescore and ten, her name is 
honored of the brethren, for her consistent and persistent toils in be- 
half of all Christian efforts. 

For several years, Miss Willard has given her energies, voice and 
pen to the organization of Woman's Temperance Unions throughout 
the nation. These associations are a logical outgrowth of the 
Woman's Temperance Crusade, " which began in 1873, continued 
about six months, extended over a half-dozen of our most populous 
States, and enlisted hundreds of thousands of Christian women." In 
an essay read by appointment before the International Temperance 
Conference, which met in Philadelphia in June, 1876, Miss Willard 
read an outline "History of the Woman's National Christian Tem- 
perance Union." From that we make the following quotation: 

" The women who went forth by an impulse, sudden, irresistible, 
divine, to pray in the saloons, became convinced, as weeks and 
months passed by, that there was to be no easily won victory. The 
enemy was rich beyond their power to comprehend. He had upon 
his side the majesty of law, the trickery of politics, and the leagued 
strength of that almost invincible pair — appetite, avarice. He was 
persistent too, as fate; determined to fight it out on that line, to the 
last dollar of his enormous treasury-house, and the last ounce of his 
power. But these women of the crusade believed in God, and in 
themselves as among his appointed instruments to destroy the rum 

4 49 



50 



MISS FKANCES E. WILLAED. 



power in America. They loved Christ's cause; they loved their na- 
tive land that had been so mindful of them; they loved their, sweet 
and sacred homes; and so it came about that, though they had gone 
forth only as skirmishers, they soon fell into line of battle; though 
they had ignorantly hoped to take the enemy by sudden assault, 
they buckled on the armor for a long campaign. The Woman's 
Praying Bands, earnest, impetuous, inspired, became the Woman's 
Temperance Unions, firm, patient, persevering. The Praying Bands 
were without leadership, save that which inevitably results from the 
survival of the fittest; the Woman's Unions are regularly officered, 
in the usual way. Enthusiasm — ' a God in us ' — enabled the Pray- 
ing Bands to accomplish prodigies; the steady purpose, and the 
same faith which inspired the crusade, is conducting the Unions to 
victory, distant but sure." 

When the national organization was effected in August, 1874, at 
Chautauqua Lake, N. Y., Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, of Philadelphia, 
was elected President, and Miss Willard Corresponding Secretary. 
The latter office was no sinecure, for five thousand written commu- 
nications were sent out from the Western office alone within a 
twelvemonth, to women in every State in the Union. Its faithful 
Secretary, who was also at the head of the Chicago Union, was en- 
gaged besides for four months in traveling in behalf of the National 
Union. 

When Mr. Moody, while at Boston, bethought himself, as he said, 
of gaining "the great magazine power there is in' the hearts and 
consciences of the New England women," he called Miss Willard to 
his aid; and she at once complied, delaying merely to receive the 
permission of her aged mother. She labored assiduously as a leader 
in the spiritual meetings for women in that city. Her thorough, 
practical expositions of Scriptural truth were heard with wrapt at- 
tention by many crowded audiences, and were fruitful of much 
good. 



GOD IS LOVE. 



" God is love." 1 John 4: 16. 






My text is taken from the 1st epistle of John, and it is one of those 
texts the world does not believe. If I could make every one 
in this building believe this text, I would not preach a sermon. If 
we all believed it, we would not need a sermon. " God is love." 
That is one of the texts the devil would like to blot out of the Bible. 
For six thousand years he has been going up and down the world 
trying to make men believe that God is not love. Love begets love, 
and hate begets hate. Let me tell any one of you that I heard a man 
say this week that you were one of the meanest men in town, and 
you will soon come to the conclusion that the man who said that was 
the meanest man you ever heard of. Let me tell you that I heard a 
man say he thought more of you than of any other man in the city, 
and though you may not have thought about him before, your love 
will spring up and you will say, " I think a great deal of that man." 

Now, men are believing the devil's lies when they don't believe 
God is love. A few years ago, when we built a church in Chicago, 
a friend put up over the pulpit in gas-jets the words, " God is love." 
We thought, if we couldn't preach it into the hearts of the people we 
would burn it in. A man happened to see that text up there, and 
he said to himself: "God is not love; God does not love me;" and 
he came around into the church, not to hear the sermon, but to see 
the text as it was burning there upon the wall. The arrow reached 
its mark. He went into the inquiry meeting. I inquired what it 
was impressed him. He said it was not the sermon; it was those 
words that had burned into his soul. He was weeping, and he wanted 
to know what he should do to be saved. 

" God is love." I hope this text will find its way into every heart 
here. 1 want to prove it from Scripture. The great trouble with 
men is, they are all the time trying to measure God by their own 
rule, and from their own standpoint. A man is apt to judge others 
from his own standard. If a man is covetous, he thinks every one 
else is covetous. If he is a selfish man, he thinks every one else is 
selfish. If a man is guilty of adultery, he thinks every other man is. 
If a man is dishonest, he thinks every other man is. Many are try- 
ing to bring God down to their own level. They don't know that 
between human love and divine love there is as much difference as 
there is between darkness and light. God's love is deep and high; 
Paul says it passeth knowledge'. We love a man as long as he is 
51 



52 god ia Love. 

worthy of our love, and when he is not we cast him off; but we don't 
find in the Word of God that God casts off those who are not worthy 
of his love. If he did, there would be no one in the kingdom of God 
except Jesus himself. He was obedient unto death. He was worthy 
of love. If you have your Bibles, turn to the 13th chapter of John, 
at the first verse: "Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus 
knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world 
unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he 
loved them unto the end." Now we find his love is unchangeable. 
He knew his disciples were to forsake him and leave him. Peter 
was to deny him with a curse. Judas was that night to betray him 
with a kiss, and sell him for thirty pieces of silver. He knew that 
that night, when the shepherd was smitten, the whole flock was to be 
scattered. Yet, it is said, he loved them right through it all. His 
love is unchangeable; his disciples were never dearer to him than 
that hour when he was betrayed. Some people think that, be- 
cause they are not worthy of his love, he is going to cast them off. 
It is said in the loth verse of the 49th chapter of Isaiah: " Can a 
woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compas- 
sion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not 
forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; 
thy walls are continually before me." There is no woman that loves 
on this earth like a mother. There is no love on earth so strong as 
a mother's love. A great many things will separate a man from his 
wife, or a father from a son; but nothing will separate a true mother 
from her child. She will love him through all his sin and iniquity. 
He may sink so low that a hiss will go up against him from every 
human being, but the mother loves him through it all. God takes 
that for an illustration. He says: Can a mother forget her child? 
"Yea, they may forget, but I will not forget thee. Behold I have 
graven thee upon the palms of my hands," and thy name is ever be- 
fore me. His love is unchangeable. He loved Judas, when Judas 
betrayed him with a kiss. I should have thought that love would 
have broken the heart of Judas. If there is a soul goes down to hell, 
it must go over God's love. You have to trample that love under 
your feet. 

It is said in Jeremiah, 31st chapter and 3d verse, " I have loved 
thee with an everlasting love." He loves us with an everlasting- 
love; that means, love without end. The only way you can get into 
the pit of hell, is to go right over the love of God; you cannot get 
there in any other way. God so loved the world that he gave his 
Son to die for you. That is what will make hell so terrible. It is 
because you have to go over the love of God. Some people 
say: " I like some proof of love." If a man told me he loved me, 
and never gave me any token, and never showed his love by any act, 
it would not be long before I would doubt his love. There is love 



GOD IS LOVE. 53 

by the tongue, that does not strike down into the heart. That is not 
worth much. God does not say he loves us without giving us some 
proof of his love. Isaiah says, in the 63d chapter and 9th verse: " In 
all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence 
saved them: in his love and in Jiis pity he redeemed them; and he 
bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Now see how 
beautiful it is: " In all their afflictions he was afflicted." You cannot 
afflict one of God's own without afflicting him. No man could strike 
that little child, but he would feel the blow more than the child. He 
takes the place of a loving father, and now he says: " In all their af- 
flictions he was afflicted, and in his love and pity he cared for them." 
That is what he wants you to believe, that he loves you, and is in 
sympathy with you. 

Not only that, but in the 38th chapter and 17th verse of the same 
prophecies, it is said: " Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but 
thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: 
for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." " Now, out of love 
to my soul," says the prophet, " He has taken all my sins," not a part 
of them, "and cast them behind his back." Now tell me, how 
is Satan going to get at our sins, if God has put them behind 
his back? If God has washed us, how is Satan going to find any- 
thing against us? Who shall say anything against God's elect? 
The prophet says : " Out of love to my soul he has taken all my 
sins, and cast them behind his back." Satan could get bediind my 
back, but he cannot pass the Lord God Almighty. He has taken 
not part of them. I like that little word " all" — " all my sins." Sup- 
pose my little boy had committed ten sins, and he came to me and 
confessed, and wanted me to forgive him, and I would say: "I will 
forgive you nine of them, but one is such a big one I will not for- 
give that." That would not do him any good. A lady came into 
the inquiry-room, and she thought the Lord had forgiven all her sins 
but one, and that was too great. The Lord does not do that; he for- 
gives all. The prophet says: " Out of love to my soul he has taken 
all my sins, and cast them behind his back." Is not that a proof of 
his love, that he forgives us freely? If I attempt to cover my sins they 
will find me out; if I dig a grave, I cannot bury them so deep but 
they will have a resurrection. But the Lord takes them away; not 
one of them shall ever be mentioned: they are gone for time and 
eternity. Is not that a proof of God's love, that he has taken all our 
sins out of the way, and put them behind his back forever? 

Then Paul says, "He loved me, and he gave himself for me;" as 
if there was not another man in the wide, wide world that the Lord 
Jesus Christ loved but Paul. He took the benefit of what Christ 
had done; and in order to get the benefit from Christ we must ap- 
propriate him to ourselves. " He loved me, and he gave himself for 



54 GOD IS LOVE. 

me." Is not that a proof of his love? To think he loved us so that 
lie gave himself for us, should make us love him. 

Turn to I. Corinthians. Here is one verse in the 8th chapter to 
which I want to call your attention. It is the 3d verse. Some peo- 
ple say, " Oh, yes, I love God," and never do it. You never see it 
in their lives, and in their actions; you never see it in anything they 
do. Now let me tell you, you may deceive your neighbors or your- 
self; you may join some church, and profess to love God — I wish 
that man would wake up yonder, for I want to tell him. You may 
make a great profession of religion; you may be a teacher in some 
Sabbath-school: but the Lord God looks into the heart to see if 
there is some love. Many a man is resting his hope upon having 
joined some church. What God wants is Love. If love does not 
prompt us to work for God, it is all abomination to him. He cannot 
want sacrifice; it is love in the heart he wants. This verse says, 
" If any man" — I like those words — " If any man" — I don't care who 
it is — " If any man love God, the same is known of him." God 
knows all about him. God measures his love, and he knows how 
deep it is, how broad it is. *' If any man love God, the same is known 
of him." God knows the street you live on and the number of your 
house. He knows all about you. He said there was not a sparrow 
that fell to the ground without his notice. He knows all about the 
sparrows; he hears the young ravens when they cry. He says the 
very hairs of our head are numbered. Is not that love? If I pull 
out a hair, I throw it down and don't think much of it; but God 
knows all about it. That is love. The very hairs of our head are 
numbered. I see mothers think a great deal of their babes; but I 
never heard of a mother that loved a babe so much that she num- 
bered the hairs of its head. 

God is looking down to see how many are loving him to-night. 
He knows your heart; you cannot conceal it. If you love him, he will 
make his abode with you; but if your heart is full of malice and bit- 
terness, the Lord cannot dwell with you. If you only love him, then 
he comes and makes his abode with you. 

Then there is another verse I want to call your attention to. There 
are some people who love God, and yet get into darkness because 
things go against them. They get almost to doubting God's love. 
If there is such a one here to-night, I want to call his attention to 
Romans, chapter 8th, verse 28th. " And we know that all things 
work together for good to them that love God." Put in that little 
word " all." A great many drop that " all." They say some things 
work together for good to them that love the Lord. If you do a 
good stroke in business, you say that is one of the things that worl; 
for good; but if you lose a great deal, you do not think it is. Now 
it may be that the losses will work more for your good than your suc- 
cesses. Let a man have prosperity, and how he turns away from 



GOD IS LOVE. 55 

God. If was when Jerusalem got fat that it kicked against God. 
See how this nation has been sinking into iniquity since the war. 
Men turn their influence against God and his cause. You need not 
go out of Philadelphia to see that; you need not go out of your own 
acquaintance. People want prosperity, and that often turns them 
against God. Paul says, " All things work together for good to them 
that love God." Do you love him? Put that down, then. 

I had a little girl taken down a few years ago with scarlet fever. 
1 was very anxious about her, and I went to a physician with whom 
I was well acquainted. He wrote a prescription, and I took it to 
one of the leading druggists, and said, " I want you to fill this with 
care." I watched him as he went to a shelf and took down a great 
many different kinds of bottles, and he poured some out of each of 
them, and put it all in one and mixed it up. Then he put it in 
another bottle and stamped it, and gave to me. Perhaps the medi- 
cine from any one of those bottles would have been rank poison, and 
would have killed the child; but they, being all mixed together, were 
just the medicine the child needed, and it worked for good and saved 
the child. So it is that all things work together for good to them 
that love God. It is a little affliction here, a little trouble, and a lit- 
tle persecution — all working together for good. Some of you may 
have lost a little child a little while ago; but perhaps you had no 
thoughts of heaven until God took that child. A lady came into the 
inquiry-room this afternoon, and she had had no thought of heaven 
for a long time; but death came and took two of her lambs, and now 
she wants to follow them. 

I was told a story of a man in Palestine. He saw a shepherd com- 
ing down to a stream with his flock. The shepherd tried to get 
them into the water, but they would not follow him. They came to 
the bank of the river, but they would not follow him in. He took a 
little lamb and put it in his bosom, and plunged into the river and 
took it to the other side. The old sheep then, instead of trembling, 
began to look up at him and bleat. In a few minutes the whole 
flock went over, and he then put the lamb down, and led the sheep 
away into the green pasture. The Great Shepherd takes the little 
lambs to the hill-tops of glory, and then the father begins to love 
and serve God. Out of love to you he has brought you into afflic- 
tion. " All things work together for good to them that love God." 
If any of you are under the afflicting rod, don't complain. You will 
find, when you get yonder, that it was pure love that prompted him 
to afflict you. 

The apostle Paul, when he was here, said, beginning at the four- 
teenth verse of the third chapter of Ephesians: "For this cause I 
bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom 
the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant 
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with 



56 ^ GOD IS LOVE. 

might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your 
hearts by faith; thatj^e, being rooted and grounded in love, may be 
able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, 
and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which pass- 
eth knowledge." That is the love of God — that we might.be able to 
comprehend the breadth, length, depth and height of God's love. 
That is what the apostle prayed for. If we only knew that love, how 
much more we would be with him and love him. The only way for 
us to comprehend the love of God is to survey the wondrous cross at 
Calvary, on which the Prince of Life died. " Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Christ 
laid down his life for his enemies. It is the cross that speaks of his 
love. Do you think God would have given up his Son if he had not 
loved you? Was it not pure love in him? 

There is a story told of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris, 
who, when France was at war with Prussia in 1871, was thrown into 
prison by the Commune. It seemed he had been to Calvary, and 
knew something about this wondrous love of God. Before he was 
executed, he wrote on the top of a little window in his prison, which 
was in the shape of a cross, "height," at the bottom, "depth," at the 
end of each arm of the cross, "length," and "breadth." Ah, that 
man had been to Calvary and tried to measure the length, and 
breadth, and depth, and height of God's love. He had surveyed 
the cross; he had drank in its truth; he had laid hold of its power. 
He saw its height reached to the throne of God, its depth to the bor- 
ders of hell, and its length and breadth to the corners of the earth. 
Oh, that this love may sink down deep into every heart. Some may 
say: "I have no doubt but God loves Christians; but I am a sinner, 
and I have rebelled against him all my life." If anyone has that 
thought, he is wrong. God loves sinners. The Bible says God loves 
sinners. It teaches another thing: that God loves you in your sin. 
Some of you may shake your heads and say that is false. God loves 
you in your sin; because, if you could get rid of your sin, you would 
not need a Savior. If he does not love us until we are free from sin, 
there is no hope for any of us. To be sure, he saves us from sin; 
but while we were yet in sin, Christ loved us, and died for us. 

A poor woman came into the inquiry-room, and said she had no 
strength. I said: "Thank God for that, Christ died for us when we 
were without strength." Christ died for the ungodly. There was a 
time when I preached that God hated the sinner, and that God was 
after every poor sinner with a double-edged sword. Many a time 
have I represented that God was after every poor sinner, ready to 
hew him down. But I have changed my ideas upon this point. I 
will tell you how. 

In 1867, when I was preaching in Dublin, in a large hall, at the 
close of the service, a young man, who did not look over seventeen, 



GOD IS LOVE. 5? 

though he was older, cane up to me and said he would like to go 
back to America with me and preach the gospel. I thought he could 
not preach it, and I said I was undecided when I could go back. He 
asked me if I would write to him when I went, and he would come 
with me. When I went I thought I would not write to him, as I did 
not know whether I wanted him or not. After I arrived at Chicago 
I got a letter saying he had just arrived at New York, and he 
would come and preach. I wrote him a cold letter, asking him to 
call on me if he came West. A few days after, I got a letter stating 
he would be in Chicago next Thursday. I didn't know what to do 
with him. I said to the officers of the church: " There is a man 
coming from England, and he wants to preach. I am going to be 
absent on Thursday and Friday. If you will let him preach on those 
days, I will be back on Saturday, and take him off your hands.' 
They did not care about him preaching, being a stranger; but at my 
request they let him preach. On my return on Saturday I was 
anxious to hear how the people liked him, and I asked my wife how 
that young Englishman got along. " How did they like him?" She 
said, "They liked him very much. He preaches a little different 
from what you do. He tells people God loves them. I think you 
will like him." I said he was wrong. I thought I could not like a 
man who preached contrary to what I was preaching. I went down 
Saturday night to hear him, but I had made up my mind not to like 
him because he preached different from me. He took his text, — and 
I saw everybody had brought their Bibles with them. " Now," he 
says, " if you will turn to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth 
verse, you will find my text." He preached a wonderful sermon 
from that text. " For God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life," My wife had told me he had preached the 
two previous sermons from that text, and I noticed there was a smile 
over the house when he took the same text. Instead of preaching 
that God was behind them with a double-edged sword to hew them 
down, he told them God wanted every sinner to be saved, and he 
loved them. I could not keep back the tears. I didn't know God 
thought so much of me. It was wonderful to hear the way he brought 
out Scripture. He went from Genesis to Revelation, and preached 
that in all ages God loved the sinner. On Sunday night there was 
a great crowd came to hear him. He took for his text the third 
chapter of John and sixteenth verse, and he preached his fourth ser- 
mon from that wonderful text, "For God so loved the world," &c, and 
he went from Genesis to Revelation to show that it was love, love, 
love, that brought Christ from Heaven, that made him step from the 
throne to lift up this poor, fallen world. He struck a higher chord 
that night, and it was glorious. The next night there was an im- 
mense crowd, and he said: "Turn to the 3d chapter and 16th verse 



58 GOD IS LOVE. 

of John," and he preached his fifth sermon from that wonderful text. 
He did not divide the text up into firstly, secondly, and thirdly, but 
he took the whole text and threw it at them. I thought that sermon 
was better than ever. I got so full of love that I got up and told my 
friends how much God loved them. The whole church was on fire be- 
fore the week was over. Tuesday night came, and there was a 
greater crowd than ever. The preacher said: "Turn to the 3d 
chapter of John and the 16th verse and you will find my text," and 
he preached his sixth sermon from that wonderful text, " God so 
loved the world," &c. They thought that sermon was better than 
any of the rest. It seemed as if every heart was on fire, and sinners 
came pressing into the kingdom of God. On Wednesday night 
people thought that probably he would change his text now, as he 
could not talk any longer on love. There was great excitement to 
see what he was going to say. He stood before us again and he said: 
" My friends, I have been trying to get a new text, but I cannot find 
any as good as the old one, so we will again turn to the 3d chapter 
of John and the 16th verse." He preached his seventh sermon from 
that wonderful text. I have never forgotten those nights. I have 
preached a different gospel since, and I have had more power with 
God and man since then. In closing up that seventh sermon he said: 
"For seven nights I have been trying to tell you how much God 
loved you, but this poor stammering tongue of mine will not let me. 
If I could ascend Jacob's ladder and ask Gabriel, who stands in the 
presence of the Almighty, to tell me how much love God the father 
has for this poor lost world, all that Gabriel could say would be ' That 
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."' 
When he got through preaching in Chicago, we had to get the larg- 
est building there, and then thousands went away because they could 
not get in. He went to Europe, and returned again. In the mean- 
time our church had been burned, and you people of Philadelphia 
had put us up a temporary building. When he came there he 
preached in this temporary building, and he said: Although the old 
building is burnt up, the old text is not burnt up, and we will preach 
from that. So he preached from where he had left off preaching 
about the love of God. 

Do not believe that God does not love you. He loves you with an 
everlasting love. " God is love." He wants to save you. Here is 
a verse in the Song of Solomon: " He brought me to the banqueting 
house, and his banner over me was love." " His left hand is under 
my head, and his right hand doth embrace me." Think of his left 
hand under our head, and his right hand around us. 

There is a story told of a young man who came to this country 
from England, became naturalized and went to Cuba, and was there 



GOD IS LOVE. 59 

some time. When the civil war came on in 1867, he was arrested as 
a spy, and taken before the military court and ordered to be shot- 
Then he sent for the two consuls of this country and England, and 
told them his case, that he was not a spy or a politician. They found 
he was perfectly innocent, and had nothing to do with the war. 
They went to the Spanish officers and said: "This man is an inno- 
cent man; he is not guilty of what he is accused." The officer said: 
"He was found guilty by the Spanish government, and he must die." 
The consuls had not time to refer to the Spanish government. They 
brought this man to the grave, and the 'black cap was drawn over 
him, and the Spanish soldiers were all ready to fire. But just be- 
fore they received the command to fire, who should rush up but the 
American and English consuls. Our American representative took 
the stars and stripes and wrapped them around the man, and the 
English consul wrapped the English flag around him, and they said: 
" Fire on these flags if you dare." They did not dare to fire, because 
behind these flags were two powerful nations. Think of the flag of 
Heaven ! God says, " My banner over you shall be love ." Come 
under the banner of Heaven to-night. Do not go out of this build- 
ing until you are sheltered under this precious banner. If you are 
under his blood, you are saved for time and eternity. Escape for 
your life; come under the banner of love, and he will keep you until 
you stand before him, pure and washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

Is there any other verse I need quote to you? " Herein," says 
John, " is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent 
his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." I can imagine some of 
you say, " God is angry with the sinner every day." That is one of 
the strongest passages in the Word of God, that God loves the sinner. 
Suppose these two boys down here (in the audience) are mine. Sup- 
pose one of them is kind and affectionate, and the other swears, lies, 
steals, gets drunk, and behaves as badly as any being can. If I didn't 
love the boy who behaved badly, I would let him go; but just be- 
cause I do love him, it makes me angry to have him take a downward 
course. " God is angry with the sinner every day." He is angry 
when the sinner takes a downward course, and it is the strongest 
proof of his love. If a boy is never corrected, it is a proof of his 
father's want of love. If you spare the rod, you spoil the child. It is 
out of pure love that God corrects us. It may be that I am talking to 
some one here that reasons in this way: " If God loves us, why are 
we punished?" It is because he does love us. It says here in He- 
brews, at the 12th chapter and 6th verse: " For whom the Lord loveth 
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye 
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son 
is he whom the father chasteneth not?" God dealeth with us as with 
sons. Father, how do you deal with your boy? Don't you punish 
him when he goes astray? It is a true sign of love when you punish 



60 



DEATH OF CHRIST. 



your boy. If I am disobedient and go astray, God has to punish me. 
That is the reason there are so many suffering. Now it is not easy 
to go against God's law and disobey God. When you were a little 
boy and went contrary to the wishes of your father and mother, were 
you not unhappy? Is there a man here to-night who will not say he 
was unhappy? If he goes against God's law and disobeys God, we 
make ourselves unhappy. The most disobedient man is the most 
unhappy man, though he have all the wealth of Philadelphia, and the 
most obedient man is the happiest. That law holds good every- 
where. God says: " If you walk contrary to me, I will walk con- 
trary to you." There is no peace for the wicked. It is because God 
loves us he wants to bring us to himself. If he did not afflict us when 
we were disobedient to him, we never would come to him and be 
saved. If you are under the chastening rod, it is because God loves 
you; and he asks you to love him. Is it not the most reasonable 
thing you can do to love God and turn unto him? Oh, may God 
bring you under that banner which is love. May his banner float 
over you, and may that banner be love. Let us sing. 

M Jesus, lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly." 



DEATH OF CHRIST. 



M But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chas- 
tieement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53 : 5. 

Last night I was speaking about the birth of Christ, and there 
was no room for him. I might have added to that sermon that the 
world did make room for him at one time, and that was upon the 
cross. That was the only place they could make room for him — be- 
tween two thieves. I want to speak about the death of Christ to- 
night, because it concerns every one of us. He was wounded for 
our transgressions, not for his own. He did not transgress; if he 
had, he would have to have died for himself. He was lamb with- 
out spot, and thus he became the sinner's substitute. "He was 
wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; 
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes 
we are healed." 

A few years ago I was going to lecture in Dublin, and I got out a 
few placards, and on them was printed, " Christ died for our sins." 
I said that should be my text. If I could only picture that scene, 
and make that scene of Calvary real, I would not preach but that 



DEATH OF CHRIST. 61 

one sermon. If that would not break men's hearts, I do not know 
what would. We cannot draw that picture as we would like; the 
world does not know what it means. The suffering of the Son of 
God we do not know. There is not a man living can tell what the 
Son of God suffered mentally. I want to take up what he suffered 
physically; and, oh, that God may help me to-night to make it real! 

I remember when our war was going on, if I took up a morning 
paper and read of a terrible battle — ten thousand men killed — I 
would lay it down and forget about it. At last I went on to the 
battle-field, and I helped to bear away the sick and wounded. After 
I had been over one or two battle-fields, I began to realize what it 
meant. I could hear the dying groans of the men, and their cry for 
water. Then when I heard of a battle, the whole thing was stamped 
upon my mind. So when men take up their Bible, because they 
have read it from their youth up, they will read this chapter of Isaiah 
from which my text is taken, foretelling the sufferings of Christ, and 
lay it down and forget about it. If I tell you how a little child suf- 
fered, it will b*ang tears to your eyes; but if I tell you how the Son 
of God suffered it does not have the same effect upon you, and you 
will sometimes go away laughing. 

Let us imagine we are living in the days when the Son of God 
was upon earth — that we are citizens of Jerusalem — that we are 
there at that memorable feast, and that late one Thursday afternoon, 
as we are walking down the street, we see thirteen men coming 
down the same street. We notice every one stops and looks at 
them. We make inquiries who they are, and we are told, "It is 
Jesus and his Apostles." Away they go to the guest chamber, and 
soon they are seated around his table. He begins to be exceedingly 
sorrowful. That night he knew one of them was to swear he never 
knew him; that the Shepherd was to be smitten, and the sheep were 
to leave him. He was sorrowful unto death. John was wondering 
what was makkig him so sad. At last he told them that one of them 
that night should betray him. The whole crowd looked startled, and 
one said, "Lord, is it I?" and another said, "Lord, is it I?" Every 
one of them began to distrust himself; and at last Judas, that awful 
traitor, who was already plotting with the chief priest to deliver him 
up, said, "Lord, is it I?" Jesus gave him to understand that it was. 
And presently he turned and said, "What thou doost do quickly;" 
and he got up and left. I do not believe you could find a sadder 
party than that little party. Judas had seen him perform his mighty 
miracles. He had been with him when he had fed the multitude in 
the wilderness. He had been with him when he had wept over Je- 
rusalem. He had been associated with him for three long years. 
And now Judas gets up and goes out. It was night. I can imagine 
I hear him as he goes down those stairs. Hark! hear him; step after 
step, out into the blackness of the darkness of night. He goes off to 



62 DEATH OF CHEIST. 

the Sanhedrim, to the rulers of the Jews. He says to them, "What 
will you give me?" He sells his Master for thirty pieces of silver. 
How cheap he sold his birthright. You condemn him; but how 
many of you are selling him for less? A lady last night wanted to 
become a Christian, but she would not give up a ball that was to 
come off on Wednesday night. She would sell her soul for a night 
in the ball-room. How many would sell him for a night in some 
drinking saloon? Judas made a bargain. He sold his Master for 
thirty pieces of silver. I hear the chink of the silver as it is thrown 
down upon the table. Judas says, " Now give me a band of men, 
and I will take you to him." 

After Judas went out, the sweetest words that ever fell from the 
lips of any person in this world were spoken by Jesus. It was on 
that occasion he said: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe 
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many man- 
sions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a 
place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may 
be also." And all those sweet words in the fourteenth, fifteenth, 
sixteenth and seventeenth chapters of John were uttered on that oc- 
casion, after Judas had left. How Judas lost those heavenly words ! 
While he was away, Christ was engaged in trying to comfort his dis- 
ciples, instead of them trying to comfort him. 

At last he said: "Come, for the time of my departure is at hand." 
Perhaps it is midnight as they walk down the streets of Jerusalem. 
He is with them for the last time. He is soon to be taken from 
them, and be delivered into the hands of sinful men. I see that lit- 
tle band, as they walk along through the streets of Jerusalem. Away 
they go over the brook Cedron. And he takes Peter and the two 
sons of Zebedee, as on the Mount of Transfiguration, and withdraws 
from them. He throws himself upon his knees. I can hear him 
pray: "Oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; 
nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And as he prayed, he 
sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 
No one knows the agony he suffered at Gethsemane. He sweat, as 
it it were, great drops of blood. Being in agony, he prayed more 
earnestly; but Peter and John and James fell asleep. After he had 
prayed some time, an angel was sent from' heaven to strengthen him. 
Then he wakes up his little band of disciples; he looks over across 
the garden, and he sees a band of men with lanterns, and torches, 
and weapons, hunting around among the olive trees. He knew 
whom they were hunting for. He went to this band and said, 
"Whom seek ye?" There is something mysterious about his voice, 
and they tremble, and fall flat to the ground as if struck by death. 
And Jesus asked them again, "Whom seek ye?" They said, "We 
seek Jesus of Nazareth." But they had not the power to lay a hand 



DEATH OF CHRIST. 63 

upon him. Judas stepped up and kissed him. Judas stepped up to 
him and kissed him, and then went to damnation. You may be a 
Sabbath- school teacher, or you may be a deacon in the church, and 
go to damnation. Judas went right down to death in twenty-four 
hours. He was lost for time and eternity. Jesus said, "Betrayest 
thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" I should have thought that 
when Jesus said that, he would have cried out, "Jesus, forgive me!" 
He betrayed him with a kiss. Judas had said to the soldiers, 
"Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: seize him." Those who 
had fallen on the ground now got up and seized him, and they bound 
those hands that had so often blessed the people. That is what the 
prophet tries to bring out: "He was wounded for our transgressions; 
he was bruised for our iniquities." He was now put under arrest, as 
if he was the worst man living. Peter draws his sword and cuts off 
the ear of one of the servants of the high priest. The Lord rebuked 
him, and told him to put up his sword; and he restored the man's 
ear. No one ever lost anything for Christ. He rebuked his disci- 
ples when they wanted to bring fire down upon a town. He came 
to save men, and not to destroy them. While the soldiers were bind- 
ing him, he was healing that poor man. 

They led him, that night, back to Jerusalem. They led him to 
Annas, the high priest, and Annas sent him to Caiaphas, who was 
then the high priest. They brought him into the presence of Caia- 
phas, and they were so thirsty for his blood that they could not wait 
until next morning. That night the Sanhedrim summoned seventy 
of the rulers of the Jews. I imagine I can see them coming from 
their homes that night. They assemble, and they seek for false wit- 
nesses to come and speak against Christ. They cannot find any two 
witnesses that would agree. Oh, how hellish that those men should 
seek false witnesses against Christ! At last they found two men that 
would agree, and Caiaphas said, "You have heard these witnesses. 
Art thou the Son of God? art thou the true Messiah?" Jesus saith 
unto him: "Thou hast said. Nevertheless, I say unto you, hereafter 
shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and 
coming in the clouds of heaven." Caiaphas says: "That is enough: 
he hath spoken blasphemy. What further need have we of wit- 
nesses?" And he said to the seventy rulers, "What think ye?" and 
they said, " He is guilty of death." I hear that sentence ringing out- 
through that council chamber. Then one goes up and strikes him. 
Then another spits in his face. Another says, "Prophesy unto us, 
thou Christ, who is he that smote thee?" Now out in the crowd 
there is Peter, the man who said, "If all the world forsake thee I will 
not." There was Peter swearing he never knew him. Judas, when 
he hears that Christ is in the hands of sinful men, he says to the 
chief priest: "Here is the money; I have sinned in that I have be- 
trayed the innocent blood." They say: "What is that to us? see 



6-£ DEATH OF CHEIST. 

thou to that." He threw it down upon the counter and went out, 
and put an end to his miserable existence. Peter denied him. There 
was no one to stand by him that terrible night. And now they keep 
him until early next morning. 

We are told that very early on Friday morning — perhaps at sun- 
rise — the news had been spreading- all through Jerusalem that that 
night the Galilean prophet had been put under arrest; that he had 
been brought before the Sanhedrim; that he had been found guilty 
of blasphemy; that he had been found guilty of death; and that they 
had condemned him to die the death of the cross. But the Ro- 
mans held the government, and the Jews could not put any one to 
death without the consent of the Roman government. So he was 
led to Pilate's court. The news soon spread over the city. The 
people hear the tidings that the Galilean prophet has been condemned 
to death, and he was to be taken outside the city and put to death. 
There is a crowd gathered, and the officers go before to beat back 
the people. As he goes along the streets, there is a hiss goes up 
from earth. They bring him before Pilate. The governor looks at 
him. He has had a great many prisoners before that, but none like 
this one. Pilate talks with him, and then he goes out and says: 
"I find no fault with him; I will chastise him and let him go." The 
Jews say: "If you let him go, you are not Caesar's friend. If 
you let him go, you will stir up the people and we will 
have a war here." When Pilate heard he was from Galilee, he 
said: "Is he a Galilean?" They say: " He is a Nazarene, and he 
has been living at Capernaum." Pilate did not want to take the re- 
sponsibility of putting him to death, and he sent him to Herod. And 
they led him to Herod, who was at Jerusalem at that time. I see 
the crowd as they go along through the streets hooting: "Away 
with him ! away with him !" They want to get him out of the way. 
There is no one to stand up for him. A short time before the crowd 
cried "Hosanna ! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the 
Lord ! Hosanna to the son of David !" Now there is not one to 
speak for him. They led him to Herod, — that man who took the 
life of his forerunner. They blindfold him, and strike him in the 
face, and say: " Prophesy who it was that struck thee." "But as a 
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth." 
Then they put a mock robe upon him, and platted a crown of thorns, 
and put it about his head, and they cried: " Hail King of the Jews." 
After they had mocked him, they sent him back to Pilate. Then 
there is a crowd around him, — a great multitude is pressing through 
the streets. They would have hanged him there, if there had not 
been a great many soldiers to guard him. Pilate has to settle the 
question at last. Pilate talks with him again. Pilate is thoroughly 
convinced that he is an innocent man. All at once I see a man 
elbowing himself through the crowd; he brings a note from Pilate's 



DEATH OR CHRIST. 65 

wife. The wife of Pilate says: " Have thou nothing to do with that 
just pe:son, for I have suffered much in a dream concerning him." 
And than Pilate tried all the more to release him. Pilate had a 
thought strike him, and he says: "I will take the most notable 
prisoner and put him to death; they will rather have this man who 
takes life put to death than the man who gives life." Perhaps Pi- 
late brought out the two. There is a vast crowd, and Pilate says : 
"Which shall I release to you? Here is Barabbas a murderer, and 
here is this Galilean prophet — this Jesus of Nazareth." But the 
Jews had gone among the crowd and said to them: "The moment 
Pilate puts the question to you say, Barabbas." So the shout went 
up, "Barabbas! Barabbas!" And poor governor Pilate was disap- 
pointed and he said: "What shall I do with Jesus, that is called 
Christ?" And they lifted up their voice with one shout of, "Crucify 
Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" That is the cry. And the 
poor governor turned and washed his hands, and said, " I am inno- 
cent of this just man's blood." And all the people answered and said: 
"His blood be on us and on our children!" Do you know that only 
a few years ago a thousand learned Jews met in Paris, and the chair- 
man got up and said the Jews had the honor of killing the Chris- 
tians' God; and the multitude clapped their hands and endorsed the 
act of Calvary. Oh, how hellish that a thousand men could boast 
of this, in the nineteenth century! 

Poor Pilate, he washed his hands and said, "I am innocent of this 
just man's blood," and the people said, "Let his blood be upon us 
and upon our children." His blood has followed them. They are 
without a nation; they are without a home; they are without a king- 
dom. Poor Jews! Oh, what blindness! Oh, what madness! They 
would not let him be their King. Oh, sinner, ruin will come upon 
you if you will not own him as your King. They scourged him. I 
do not see how a man's heart can be so hard as to hear how Christ 
was wounded for our transgressions, and not love him. The Roman 
scourging was to bind a man's wrists together, strip his back bare, 
and then lash him with a scourge made by taking sharp pieces of 
steel and braiding them into a lash. This was the scourge used 
upon the Son of God, blow after blow, cutting through the flesh clear 
to the bone. Sometimes the scourging lasted fifteen minutes, and 
the man died. How sad the thought that those stripes were laid 
upon the back of the Son of God. Isaiah saw the Son of God in that 
judgment hall, and he said, "With his stripes we are healed." After 
he had been scourged, instead of pouring oil into those wounds, they 
put a mock robe upon him, and a crown of thorns. When the Queen 
of England sits upon her throne, she has a crown upon her head 
worth millions. Christ had a crown of thorns put on his head, and a 
reed was put in his hand, and they put some cast-off robe upon him ; 
and they pointed the finger of scorn at him and said, " Hail King of 

5 



66 DEATH OF CHRIST. 

the Jews!" At last some of them take that reed and bring it down 
over the crown of thorns. Behold him wounded for our transgres- 
sions. He was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of 
our peace was laid upon him. All this was early in the morning. 
Now you can see him: he is coming out of the judgment hall. They 
have taken two other prisoners, and they have made a cross for each 
one. Now they place the cross upon his shoulders. You ladies 
wear light crosses of jewelry, but they took a heavy cross, made out 
of a tree and now you see the Son of God struggling under that cross, 
He has been scourged, and has lost much of his blood. I can im- 
agine, as he passes along, there is none to deliver him. He gave 
himself for us all. I can imagine the cross is too heavy for him. 
We are not told why it was taken from his shoulders, but we must 
believe it was because he was not able to carry it. They took it 
from his shoulders, and put it upon the shoulders of a stronger. 

Sinner, look at him being led up that hill, his back all bleeding 
and bare! His disciples have left him. He is forsaken. Now he 
threads that path alone. The soldiers guard him. They take up 
that bleeding body of Jesus, and lay him out upon the cross. They 
fasten each hand to the arms of the cross. A Roman soldier comes 
up, and he puts a spike into the hand of the innocent Jesus; that 
hand that had ever blessed the people; that hand that had ever been 
ready to touch the sick and make them whole. The soldier took 
nails and drove them into the palms of his hands; and then he put 
nails in his feet. See him, as with blow after blow he drives them 
into his feet, and then they take the cross and put it up, with the 
Son of God hanging between heaven and earth. 

Oh, gaze upon that scene! Look into that lovely face; look at 
that blood trickling down from his side. And will you turn away 
and say: "I do not care for him; I see no beauty in him; he is a 
root out of dry ground?" Is your heart so hard that you see no 
beauty in him ? I beg you to-night to gaze upon him, and look into 
his face. Hark! He speaks. While the crowd are mocking, h^ 
speaks. What does he say? Like the prophets of the old days, he 
could have called down fire from Heaven and consumed them. Does 
he call down legions of angels to beat back that crowd? No. He 
says, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" Hear 
his piercing cry of love: " Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do!" Then he said, " I thirst." And they refused him a 
draught of water; but they gave him gall, mixed with vinegar. 
When he found men athirst down here, he gave them living water. 
At last he cries again, " It is finished!" I do not know as there 
were many on earth that heard it; and they that heard it did not 
understand it. But in the world of life they knew what that meant. 
It was the shout of the conqueror; it was the shout of victory. Every 
one in Heaven heard the cry. The amjels around the throne heard 



DEATH OF CHKIST. 67 

it. The bells of Heaven rang, and it went pealing through Heaven, 
*' It is finished!" The God-man has died, and all sinners have to do 
is to look and live. It is eternal life for a look. Undoubtedly, the 
dark fiends of hell had been gathered there while that was going on. 
They thought they were going to triumph then. And those 
dark waves of death and hell came dashing against him. He beat 
them back. See the tide and wind in the great ocean ; when the 
wind is mad and angry, how the great waves come dashing up against 
the rock; but it stands firm. They go back and come stealing up 
against the rock again. So the dark waves of hell seemed to dash up 
against the Rock of our salvation; but he has beaten them back. 
He was able to take the billows and let them go rolling over him. 
At last he shouted, " It is finished!" He triumphed over the powers 
of darkness. A glorious triumph it was. 

But, thanks be to God, we do not worship a dead Savior. I am 
not going to leave him there to-night. Joseph of Arimathea — where 
he was when Christ was on trial I do not know, but he is no longer 
a secret disciple. The death of Christ has brought him out. If 
Christ has tasted death for us, let us not be ashamed of him. Joseph 
goes to Pilate, and he went in boldly and begged the body of Jesus. 
Pilate says, " Is he dead?" " Yes, he is dead." Pilate marveled; he 
could not believe it. He gave orders to make sure the body was 
dead, and then he handed it over to Joseph. There is Nicodemus; 
he had not forgotten that first night when he was with Jesus. There 
is Joseph of Arimathea; there are the Roman soldiers, and the few 
women that had gathered around him. I see them there. I see 
one of the Roman soldiers take his spear, and drive it into the side 
of the Son of God. He opened the fountain for uncleanness when they 
drove the spear into his side. They pronounced him dead, and he 
gave his body to Joseph. It was a cruel hand that drove those nails 
into his hands and feet, but it was a tender hand that took them out. 
As they took those nails out, Nicodemus turns to Joseph and says: 
" That reminds me of the first night when I met him, when he said, 
'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of Man be lifted up.' " They drew those nails out of his hands 
and feet; they took down that bruised body and washed it; and 
wrapped it in fine linen. And if we had been there we would have 
seen a little funeral procession. He did not have many people to 
follow him; but no doubt he had legions of angels following him. 

They laid him away in Joseph's sepulchre. The governor had 
given orders that a great stone should be rolled there and sealed, 
and soldiers were sent there to guard the sepulchre. The enemies 
of Christ had the sepulchre guarded, and there were sentinals walk- 
ing around it day and night. Says death, "I hold him in my cold em- 
brace." He held him Friday night; he held him Saturday, and all that 
night. The next morning, as the sun was coming up behind these 



68 DEATH OF CHRIST. 

Palestine hills, before its rays strike the sepulchre, Gabriel came 
down from Heaven and rolled away the stone. The moment the 
angel came, the soldiers fell to the ground as dead men. Then he 
rolled away that stone. Yes, and those hands that had grown cold in 
death, began to grow warm, and the Son of God burst asunder the 
bars of the tomb. And when the disciples got there, they found the an- 
gel there; and they fouud that Jesus had bound death hand and foot, 
He conquered death, and bound him hand and foot, and ascended 
into Heaven; and he calls us from there, that where he is we may be 
also. He was seen by over five hundred at one time. 

Thomas alone did not believe. He was like a good many of 
our doubting Christians. He said, " Unless I thrust my hand into 
his side, I will not believe it." I imagine John says to Thomas: "1 
have got good news for you, Thomas; the Lord has risen." "I don't 
believe it," says Thomas. He goes along and he meets Peter. Peter 
says: "Thomas, have you heard that Jesus has risen, and sent a mes- 
sage to me?" "I don't believe it," says Thomas. "But," says 
Peter, M they tell me it is a fact." " Well, I will not believe it until 
I thrust my hand into that wound in his side, and into that wound in 
the palm of his hand." Then after this they were assembled in a large 
room in Jerusalem, and Thomas was there; and all at once Christ 
revealed himself, and he said to Thomas: "Reach forth thy hand, 
and put it into my side." Thomas didn't want any more proof, and 
he cries out, "My Lord and my God!" His doubts and unbelief 
were forever swept away. 

Thanks be to God, we do not worship a dead Savior. He takes the 
eleven out of Jerusalem through the valley of Jehosaphat, and comes 
out to Bethany under a cluster of olive trees. He takes his farewell 
of them. He gives them his parting message, and says: " Go to all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not 
shall be damned." He raised his hand over them and began to bless 
them. He commenced his teaching with blessing. He had nine 
blessings in his sermon on the Mount. And now he is going away, 
and he begins to bless them. While he blesses them, he begins to 
ascend; and his voice grows fainter and fainter, and at last it dies away 
in the clouds. At last the clouds receive him out of their sight. 
The eleven men are gazing. They long for a break in the clouds; 
they want to see him once more; they look and look, but it is all in 
vain. I can imagine that up above those clouds, there was a chaWot 
for him from his Father's mansion. I can see him as he st^ps into 
that chariot; I can see him as he sweeps on his way where all Heaven 
is waiting to give him a welcome. " Lift up your heads O ye gates; 
and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors: and the King of Glory shall 
come in." He looks back and sees those eleven men. He sees 
their tears, and he says to two angels: "Go down there and comfort 



COME INTO THE ARK. 69 

those men, and tell them that I will be back again." The two angels 
come down and say: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up 
into Heaven. This same Jesus which is taken up from you into 
Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into 
Heaven." 

He is coming back again. Oh, lift up your hearts, for the time of 
your redemption draweth near! He is coming back again. We do 
riot know the day nor the hour. " Then the dead in Christ shall 
rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to- 
gether with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so 
shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort ye one another 
with these words." Thank God, that day may come at any moment. 
Let us be ready. Let us see that we have a glorious hope in Christ, 
and then let him come; and we shall be forever with the Lord. I 
beg you do not make light of the Lord Jesus Christ; but just to- 
night take him into your heart, and he will be your resurrection and 
your life. And when your hour shall come to be translated to 
another world, it will be well with you. If we are in Christ, there 
will be no darkness or sorrow for us. 



COME INTO THE ARK. 

** And the Lord said unto Noah, Coma thou and all thy house into the Ark." Genesis, 7:1. 

This word "come" you will find in all parts of the Bible; but this 
is the first time if occurs. One hundred and twenty years before 
this invitation was given, Noah had received the most awful tidings 
that ever came from Heaven to earth. No tidings like that had ever 
come to this earth. God told Noah he was going to destroy man on 
account of his wickedness. Some skeptics will say: " I wonder if 
that man believes there ever was a flood. I thought we in this age 
of the world had got beyond that." A great many people say: "I 
don't believe there ever was a flood upon the earth. There are some 
things in the Bible I believe, and some things I do not believe." 
Some people say: " I believe the New Testament, but not the Old 
Testament. There are a great many things in the Old Testament 
which I can not believe." Well, if you throw out some things you 
must throw out the whole. Take the n?.r rative of the flood out of the 
Old Testament, and you must cut the New Testament to pieces; be- 



70 



COME INTO THE AEK. 



cause the Son of God said: " As it was in the days of Noe, so shall 
it be at the coming of the Son of Man." He put his divine seal upon 
it. If you can make it appear that God did tell a lie and misrepre- 
sent one thing, then all his teaching goes for naught. I believe 
there was a flood, just as much as I believe I exist. I do not see 
how any man can read the Bible and doubt it. Some of the scien- 
tific men try to get over it; but they have to believe it. Heathen 
nations tell us they found the skeleton of a whale in Asia; and there 
are other indications of a flood having at one time covered the earth. 
Skeptics try to make out these things were not caused by the flood 
recorded in Scripture. They do it because they know if the Bible 
is true it condemns them. Now, good men could not have written 
the Bible unless it is true; and what would be the object of bad men 
writing such a book, condemning themselves? 

I will now call your attention to the message: u Come thou and 
all thy house into the ark." Noah was one hundred and twenty 
years building that ark; and in all those years it was a warning to 
the people. It was Noah's testimony. Every time he drove a nail, 
it was a warning to them. Every sound of the hammer said. " I be- 
lieve God." Noah said, " I believe God." All the rest of the world 
did not believe. There was not another family in the world that be- 
lieved God. Men turned away, and reasoned in this way: " "Why, 
if it was true, others would know it besides Noah." In our day 
people say: " Because a great many people don't believe God, God 
cannot be true." They think in consequence of sin, God is a failure. 
Are the decrees of heaven changed because men do not believe them? 

God told Noah to build the ark. It was to be five hundred feet 
long; it was to be eighty feet wide and fifty feet high; it was to have 
three stories. If the floors were put on one level, it would be fifteen 
hundred feet long, two hundred and forty feet wide, and sixteen or 
seventeen feet high. This building we are in would be nothing to it. 
You could put five or six such buildings as this into it. That was no 
small undertaking in those days. I can imagine the people said: 
"How are you going to get the animals into the ark?" . A great 
many men are ready to ridicule. No man stands up for God but he 
has to suifer ridicule, scorn, and contempt. I have no doubt that 
when Noah walked down to his home the people called him, " the 
lunatic;" they called him, "the old dreamer." They said he was a 
fanatic, and was spending all his means in that ark; that he was 
wasting his time, energies, and strength in a foolish undertaking. 
Men caviled and laughed at him. If there had been any preachers in 
those days, they would have preached about him and warned the 
people against him. If there had been any theatres, they would have 
had him represented on the floors of those theatres building the ark; 
and if there had been asylums for the insane, no doubt they would 
have put him in one, if God had not protected him. If we are true 



COME INTO THE ARK. 71 

to God, we must be true in heart. All classes of the people were op- 
posed to Noah. The gTeat men of that time, the scientific men, the 
statesmen, the princes, kings, and rulers, — the whole world were all 
against him. But thanks be to God, Noah lived and walked close to 
God, and his children had confidence in him. And when the word 
came from God for them to move into the ark, they all went in with 
him. 

Now, let us imagine we are looking at that scene. There is Noah 
building that ark, and as he went on building and it increased in 
size, and drew nearer and nearer completion, undoubtedly the num- 
ber of visitors to that ark kept increasing. As they saw the old man, 
they would punch one another and say, " That is Noah; don't you 
see he looks a little out of his mind?" A mad man thinks every one 
else mad but himself. A drunkard does not call himself mad when he 
is drinking up all his means. Those men who stand and deal out death 
and damnation to men are not called mad; but a man is called mad 
when he gets into the ark, and is saved for time and eternity. I can 
imagine one hundred years have rolled away, and the work on the 
ark ceases. Men say, "What has he stopped work for?" He has 
gone on a preaching tour, to tell the people of the coming storm — 
that God is going to sweep every man from the face of the earth, 
unless he is in that ark. But he cannot get a man to come into that 
ark except his own family. Now, his contracts are drawing to a 
close. He believes the word of God, that in one hundred and twenty 
years the world would be destroyed; and everything must be done 
at a certain day. The work must be finished. I imagine it is the 
spring of the year. Noah didn't plant anything, and the people say: 
" Noah believes this j^ear that the world is going to be destroyed. 
See, now, if he will not come to want." There is a rumor that he is 
going to live in the ark. He is going to leave his house that he has 
lived in for four hundred years. The ark is finished, and he leaves 
his home. Some of his relatives might have said, " What are you 
going to do with the old homestead?" Noah says, "I don't want it, 
the storm is coming." He tells them the day of grace is closing, that 
worldly wealth is of no value, and that the ark -is the only place of 
safety. We must bear in mind that these railroads that we think so 
much of, will soon go down; they only run for time, not for eternity. 
The heavens will be on fire, and then what will your property, honor, 
and position in society be worth? 

The word comes to Noah, " Come thou and all thy house into the 
ark." Now you see all Noah's neighbors and friends ridiculing him 
as he moves in. They say, he certainly is mad. After he has moved 
in, the first thing that alarms them is, they rise one morning, and lo 
and behold! the heavens are filled with the fowls of the air. They 
are flying into the ark, two by two. They come from the desert; 
they come from the mountain; they come from all parts of the world. 



72 COME INTO THE AEK. 

They are going into the ark. It must have been a curious sight. I 
can hear the people cry, " Great God! what is the meaning of this?" 
And they look down on the earth; and, with great alarm and surprise, 
they see little insects creeping up two by two, coming from all parts 
of the world. Then behold! there come the tiger and the elephant, 
two by two. The neighbors cry out, "What does this mean?" 
They run to their statesmen and wise men, who have told them there 
was no sign of a coming storm, and ask them why it is that those 
birds, animals, and creeping things go toward the ark, as if guided by 
some unseen hand. "Well," the statesmen and wise men say, " we 
cannot explain it; but give yourselves no trouble; God is not going 
to destroy the world. Business was never better than it is now. Do 
you think if God was going to destroy the world, he would let us go 
on so prosperous as he has? There is no sign of a coming storm. 
What has made these creeping insects and these wild beasts of the 
forest go into the ark, we do not know. We cannot understand it; 
it is very strange. But there is no sign of anything going to hap- 
pen. The stars are bright, and the sun shines as bright as ever it 
did. The lambs are skipping upon the hillside, and everything moves 
on as it has been moving for all time past. You can hear the chil- 
dren playing in the street. You can hear the voice of the bride and 
bridegroom in the land, and all is merry as ever." I imagine the 
alarm passed away, and they fell into their regular courses. Noah 
comes out and says: "The door is going to be shut. Come in. God 
is going to destroy the world. See the animals, how they have come 
up; the communication has come to them direct from Heaven." But 
the people only mocked on. 

One morning they are startled. They see that the great door of 
the ark is shut. The door of that ark must have been a large one. 
We are told God shut it. Perhaps it was so large no one could shut 
it. The same God that shut Noah in, shut the world out. It was a 
door of mercy and grace to those inside, but a warning to those out- 
side. God shut that door, and shut them in. Matthew tells us that 
when the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, there 
will be no hope. Thank God the door of grace and mercy is open 
to-night. When that door is* shut, there will be no hope for those 
outside of the ark of safety. " In a day that ye think not, the Son of 
Man shall come." That door of mercy and grace may be shut at any 
moment. While that door is open, and God calls you, oh, be wise, 
and step into the ark! 

The door of the ark was shut, and none could enter then; but yet 
the people worked on, and the world went on scoffing. They said: 
" We see no sign of a coming storm. The lambs are skipping upon 
the hillsides." God gave them seven days' grace. If those antedi- 
luvians had cried for mercy in those seven days, they might have 
been saved. You cannot find a passage in the Bible where men have 



COME INTO THE ARK. 73 

cried for mercy but they have always got it. The seven days have 
passed, and the last day has come. It is a very solemn period, these 
last days of the old year; and especially of the year 1875. For the 
last few days I have been praying to God that these last days of this 
year might be the best of all the days that have gone before them. 
I have been praying that this last Sabbath night may be the best 
Sabbath night we have ever spent. The last day came ; those seven 
days of grace had expired, and the sun had gone down. Little did 
the people think as it went down that night, that it was the last time 
they should ever see it; and that the next morning when they arose, 
the heavens should be black with clouds. Did you ever stop and 
think that the last week is coming to you, that the last day is com- 
ing, and the last hour? It was coming to them. That night I can 
see the mothers putting their children to bed as usual. Perhaps some 
of them were mocking and laughing at the thought that Noah was 
shut up in that old ark. 

But at midnight, as we read in the New Testament, the cry was 
heard, " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh." That night the children 
were playing in the streets; there was marrying and giving in mar- 
riage that night. Perhaps at midnight, when they were all asleep, 
it began to thunder; and by and by it thundered so none of them 
could sleep. And the earth was rolling like a drunken man. The 
windows of heaven were open, and the fountains of the deep were 
broken up. The water came bubbling up, and the great sea burst 
its bounds and leaps over its walls. The rivers begin to swell. The 
people living in the lowlands begin to flee to the mountains and 
highlands. They flee up the hillsides. And there is a wail going 
up: "Noah! Noah! Noah! Let us in." They leave their homes 
and come to the ark now. They pound on the ark. Hear them cry: 
"Noah! Let us in. Noah! Have mercy on me." "I am your 
nephew," " I am your niece," " I am your uncle." Ah, there is a 
voice inside, saying: "I would like to let you in; but God has shut 
the door, and I cannot open it!" Ah, God shut that door! When the 
door is shut, there is no hope. Their cry was too late; their cry for 
mercy was too late; their day of grace was closed. Their last hour 
had come. God had plead with them; God had invited them to 
come in; but they had mocked at the invitation. They scoffed and 
ridiculed the idea of a deluge. Now it is too late. Now they would 
enter, but they cannot. Dear sinner, did you ever stop and think 
that the last year is coming? This year may be the last year for 
some in this assembly. The last month is coming — the last week is 
corning — the last day is coming — Yes, the last hour is coming, as it 
came to those antediluvians! Their day of grace was over; their 
day of mercy was ended, and now there was a wail going up from 
them. God did not permit any one to tell us how they perished. 
When Job lost his family, there was a messenger came to him; but 



74 COME INTO THE ARK. 

there was no messenger came from the antediluvians; not even Noah 
could see the world perish. If he could, he would have seen men 
and women and children dashing against that ark; the waves rising 
higher and higher, while those outside were perishing, dying in un- 
belief. Some think to escape by climbing the trees, and think the 
storm will soon go down; but it rains on, day and night, for forty 
days and forty nights, and they are swept away as the waves dash 
against them. The statesmen, and astronomers and great men call 
for mercy; but it is too late. They had disobeyed the God of mercy. 
He had called, and they refused. He had plead with them, but they 
had laughed and mocked. But now the time is come for judgment 
instead of mercy. 

The time is coming again when God is going to deal in judgment 
with the world. It is but a little while; we know not when, but it 
is sure to come. God's word has gone forth that this world shall be 
rolled together like a scroll, and shall be on fire. What then will 
become of your soul? It is a loving call, "Now come, thou and all 
thy house, into the ark." Twenty-four hours before that rain began 
to fall, Noah's ark, if it had been sold at auction, would not have 
brought as much as it would be worth for kindling wood. But 
twenty-four hours after the rain began to fall, Noah's ark was worth 
more than all the world. There was not then a man living but 
would have given all his living for a seat in Noah's ark. You may 
turn away from this hall to-night, and laugh. "I believe in Christ!" 
you say. "I would rather be without him than to have him." But 
bear in mind the time is coming that Christ will be worth more to 
you than ten thousand worlds like this. Bear in mind that he is of- 
fered to you to-night. It is a day of grace; it is a day of mercy. 
Do you know if you read your Bible carefully, that God always pre- 
cedes judgment with grace? Grace is a forerunner of judgment. 
Now he called these men in the days of Noah in love. They would 
have been saved in those one hundred and twenty years. We find 
that when Christ came to plead with the people, and came to Jerusa- 
lem, it was their day of grace; but they mocked and laughed at him. 
He said: " Oh, how I would have gathered them up, as a hen doth 
gather her brood under her wings, but ye would not." They laughed 
and mocked. Forty years afterward, thousands of the people begged 
that their lives might be spared; and eleven hundred million of per- 
sons perished in that city. 

In 1857 there was a revival that swept over this country — some 
people took up the pen and tried to write it down; it swept over the 
east and on to the western cities, clear over to the Pacific coast. 
This was God calling the nation to himself. There were half a mil- 
lion people united with the church at that time. Then the war broke 
out. We were baptized with the Holy Ghost in 1857, and in 1861 
we were baptized in blood. It was a call of mercy, preceding judg- 



COME INTO THE ARK. 75 

merit. I have a strange kind of feeling that we are living on the 
eve of some great crisis. You had better be wise and come into the 
ark. You had better be saved while God is calling you. I know 
how men were saved by that revival. I was with the army and I 
heard a shout in that army of " Glory to God in the highest!" You 
need not tell me that was not God breathing upon the nation, when 
dead souls were brought to life. We are now on the eve of a mighty 
revival. Make haste and make up your mind while it is a day of 
grace and mercy. A young lady tried this afternoon. She came in 
unconcerned; but she made up her mind not to go out until she got 
into the ark, and she soon got in. 

God seeks to be merciful, and he wants to have you and your chil- 
dren saved. God said to Noah, " Come thou and all thy house into 
the ark." Father, are you in? Then you should not rest until your 
children are in. The burden of my prayer is that God may save my 
children. What would have been Noah's feelings if he had left one 
son out of the ark, when those judgment waves came against it? He 
would have said: " There is my poor boy on some mountain. Poor 
boy. Would to God I had died in his place. I would rather have 
perished on the mountain than had him perish." David cried over 
his son: " Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would to 
God I had died for thee!" Noah loved his children, and they had 
confidence in him. A week ago there was a mother came here with 
her daughter. During the meeting the Spirit of God touched that 
daughter's heart. The daughter turned to the mother and said she 
wanted to go into the inquiry-room, and asked her mother to go in 
with her. The mother was not a Christian and she would not go 
with her daughter. She said, " Go in alone." The daughter said, 
" I will not go in without you go with me." The mother thought 
she would like to have her daughter go in, and she consented to go 
in with her, for she did not wish to stand in the way of her child. 
The next day she came to me. I was talking with her and she told 
me how she was brought under conviction. She said the sermon 
made no impression; she had no feeling about the matter until her 
daughter asked her to go into the inquiry-room with her. She was 
now very anxious about her salvation. I explained to her the way 
to become a Christian, and I have every reason to believe that she 
found Christ then and there. It is a glorious sight to see a whole 
family going into the ark. God said to Noah: "Come thou and all 
thy family into the ark." Hear the voice of God calling you into the 
ark, and set your face like a flint and say, " I will press into the king- 
dom of God." 

When I was in Edinburgh on the last night of 1873, I was plead- 
ing with the people to come to Christ. A young lady made up her 
mind she would press into the ark of God. The Spirit of God had 
touched her heart, and she entered the kingdom of God. The next 



76 TBUST. 

day she went to one of the ministers and said, " Cannot you give me 
something to do?" She had finished her education and was going 
home. He gave her some tracts to distribute. She went to work 
and distributed the tracts, and the next day she came to the meet- 
ing for the last time. She got all her things packed the next morn- 
ing, and she took the train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, to go home 
to her widowed mother. She took her hymn-book with her, and as 
she was on her way home she was singing from this book. There 
was another lady in the carriage that had come to the meeting the 
night before, and had heard about Christ, and was convicted and 
converted. There was a collision, and the young convert that was 
converted the night before was killed instantly, and this girl was mor- 
tally wounded. She had her hymn-book open and it was stained with 
blood. As she was dying she was heard to sing: "The gate's ajar 
for me." The message came to that widowed mother that her 
daughter had gone to her long home. I would to God I could say 
something that would induce you to come into the ark. The gate's 
ajar for you and you can enter if you will. You can all enter if you 
will. I do not know when these gates will be closed; I do not know 
when the day of grace will end, but I know you can be saved to- 
night if you will. Come into the ark now. Accept salvation as a 
gift. My prayer is that God may bring many souls into the ark to- 
night. 



TRUST. 

" It is better to trust in the Lord." Psalm 118 : 8. 

I have a short text to-night, but there is a great deal in it. Let 
every one who has been led by the Spirit to put his trust in God, 
pray that every soul here that is out of Christ may put his trust in 
him to-night. This day is one of the most solemn days of my life. 
The thought comes stealing over me that I am standing before people 
whom I shall never meet again. I have not come here to-night so 
much to preach a sermon as to tell you how you may be saved. If I 
should go to yonder prison, and find any one of you there condemned 
and sentenced to be hanged for the murder of some man, and I 
should begin to talk about the Governor, and tell you all about his 
mansion, his home, and what a kind heart he had, it would not be 
what you wanted to hear. You would rather have me tell you what 



TRUST. 77 

you might do to save your life, and how you could get out of prison. 
That is what I came to tell you to-night — to tell you how you can 
be saved. The text is this little word " Trust." I want you to re- 
member the text, if you don't get the sermon. This text will be 
worth a hundred sermons. I have been preaching to you about be- 
lieving and receiving Christ, and now I want to talk to you about 
trusting Christ. The word " Believe" in the New Testament is the 
same as "Trust" in the Old Testament. Where it is " Repent and 
turn to God" in the New Testament it is " Turn ye, turn ye" in the 
Old. Where it is " Believe, believe" in the New, it is " Trust, trust, 
trust," in the Old. Some people get hold of that word " Trust," when 
they don't understand what is meant by believing on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. It is a simple word. You would not have come here to- 
night if you had not trusted there was going to be a meeting. Trust 
is the foundation of all society. The moment men lose confidence 
in each other, how their peace is disturbed. When our confidence 
is disturbed in our homes what darkness and wretchedness follow. If 
a father loses confidence in his son, how dark that home becomes. 

Now, you know the 118th Psalm and 8th verse is just the middle 
verse in the whole Bible. A convict in one of our prisons counted 
the verses in the Bible, and he found that was the middle verse. I 
thought that was a good place to begin, and run both ways, and we 
will then have the whole Bible. At least we will take up such pas- 
sages as will help us to get hold of this truth, beginning with that 
one: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in 
man." You will say Amen to that. You that have put confi- 
dence in man and been disappointed, can say that is true. There is 
not an infidel here but will admit that. It is better to trust God than 
yourself. I would rather trust God than my own deceitful heart. It 
is better to make yourself a liar and make God true. It is better to 
trust in the Lord than to put confidence even in princes. That is 
what the Lord said. 

There is a passage which I like very much in the twenty-sixth 
chapter of Isaiah, at the third verse: " Thou wilt keep him in per- 
fect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. 
Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength." The trouble with inquirers is, they have their minds 
stayed on themselves. " The way of the wicked he turneth upside 
down." " There is no peace for the wicked." " Trust ye in the 
Lord, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Our 
strength will fail us. The strength of our friends will fail us. 
If we trust in our money it will take wings and fly away. If we 
trust in the love of our friends, they will leave us. A boy is 
used to trust his father and mother, but they are covered in their 
graves, and if he had not God to trust, what would he have done? 
A mother may forget her child, but God will never forget us. " In 



¥8 TRUST. 

Jehovah is everlasting strength." Turn to that passage in your 
Bible, and you will find in the margin, "Trust in the Rock of Ages." 
The Lord wants us to trust in the Rock of Ages. A man shall never 
fall if he puts his trust in the Lord Jehovah; but if he puts his trust 
in anything else, he will be disappointed. 

When shall we trust? A great many say: "I would like to be- 
come a Christian ; but you don't pretend to say I can trust to-night, 
and be saved?" There is not anything to hinder every man here 
to-night from trusting, if he will. You say: "Have I not to feel a 
little, and repent more, and weep more, and have a deeper convic- 
tion of sin?" A deep conviction of sin is all you want. I don't ob- 
ject to seeing men weep over their sins. Some people think it is not 
manly. I don't know why it is not manly for a man to weep over his 
sins. It is more manly than to trifle with salvation, and make light 
of serious things. A great many men seem to be ashamed to shed 
tears over their sins. 

God commands all men to repent, and to put their trust in him. 
if you go out of this hall to-night without trusting God for salvation, 
you are doing what God tells you not to do. In the eighth verse of 
the sixty-second Psalm, it is said, " Trust him at all times." That 
means to-night. "Ye people, pour out your heart before him: God 
is a refuge for us." Now if we make him a refuge, and put our trust 
in him, we will not be disappointed. Trust in him at all times, in 
the dark as well as in the light. We very often hear men say, " I 
would not trust that man farther than I could see him." They treat 
God in the same way. If they see how a thing is coming out, they 
will trust God. That is walking by sight and not by faith. Let us 
trust him when we cannot see him. Let us put our confidence in 
him, and he will surely not fail us. There is a verse in Proverbs 
teaching us how to trust him: "Trust in the Lord with all thine 
heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways 
acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." I never knew a 
man that was willing to trust the Lord with all his heart, but the 
Lord saved him, and delivered him from all his doubts. The great 
trouble is, we do not trust him with all our heart. God says, " Ye 
shall find me when you search for me with all your heart." God 
says, " Trust me with all your heart." Is there anything to hinder 
you from putting your trust in him? 

There is a story told that Alexander the Great received a letter 
telling him his physician was going to put poison in a certain glass 
for him to drink. The Emperor held up the letter for the doctor to 
read, and drank the mixture without examination. He trusted his 
doctor. God says, "Trust in me, and you shall be saved." The 
devil will insinuate that God is not true. Don't let the devil bring 
up any insinuations about God not being true. He is true; he has 



TRUST. 79 

always kept his promises. We find witnesses in all ages bear testi- 
mony to this. 

There is a story told that Dr. Chalmers was going to see a woman 
who was troubled about faith. A great many think this faith is some 
miraculous gift from Heaven. Of course it comes from God; but it 
is the same kind of faith you have in one another. The old Doctor 
was going to see this woman, and he had to cross a brook, over which 
there was a plank. He looked at it, and thought it might be rotten 
and would break, and so let him down. He put his foot on it and did 
not dare to venture. He was afraid. The old Scotch woman saw him 
and said, "Lip ontilt it;" that was, "Trust it, and it will hold you." 
The doctor believed her, and crossed the stream. My friends, just 
"Lip ontilt it." Trust him; his promise will hold every one. It is 
sure footing for eternity. The dark hours of death, persecution and 
slander have come dashing against it; but thanks be to God, I have 
stood on the rock for twenty years. I tremble sometimes, but the 
rock never. It is sure footing. Here it is: " Yerily, verily I say 
unto you" — put your name in there — " He that heareth my word" — 
have you not heard it? have you not read it? have you not handled 
it? — " He that heareth my word, and belie veth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but hath 
passed from death unto life." That is a plank that can carry you 
over the stream. Walk out on it. 

I was talking with a man in the inquiry-room last week about 
taking God at his word. I asked him if he believed the Bible. He 
said he believed every word of it. I read this 24th verse of the 5th 
chapter of John to him. When I got to "hath everlasting life," I 
asked him : "Have you got it?" "No sir, 75 he said, a I have not got 
it." " Then," I said, "you don't believe it, you come to the point 
where there is life, and you halt. There is life there, in the middle 
of that verse. There are two lines below it and two lines above it. 
Take it and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have it." I 
told him about a man in Dr. Hatfield's church. There were a few 
inquirers there, and I was talking about that verse, taking it by sen- 
tences, "Verily, verily," truly, truly, "I say unto you, he that hear- 
eth my word and believeth on him that sent me." I brought the 
inquirers so far, and when I said, " hath everlasting life," the man 
leaped to his feet, and said: "I have it now." He had got it. You 
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you ever would win the 
kingdom of Heaven. You must have a poor opinion of God if you 
don't believe his word. Many a man has been knocked down for 
saying another man is a liar. This is calling God a liar. 

Don't go out of this building with the delusion that you cannot 
trust God. When a man tells me he cannot trust me, I ask him to 
give a reason. Suppose a man comes to me and says: "Moody, I do 
not believe what you are preaching. You are a liar." I ask him 



80 TRUST. 

the reason. I ask, where has God ever broken his promise to man. 
I would like to have any skeptical man put his hand upon any 
promise that God has not kept. "God is not a man, that he should 
lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent." Has he not said it, 
and will he repent? It is unreasonable for a man to say he cannot 
believe God. Why cannot you? Has he ever disappointed you? 
You will find him true when everyone else is untrue. You will find 
him a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 

Let us look at the ninth Psalm and tenth verse : " And they that 
know thy name will put their trust in thee : for thou, Lord, has not 
forsaken them that seek thee." A man that knows God cannot help 
but trust him. That is a good proof we have that these things are 
true. Men that know most about God, trust him the most. It is 
these men who don't know God, that don't trust him. Did you ever 
see a man that was well acquainted with the Bible, and well 
acquainted with the teachings of the Spirit, that didn't have full con- 
fidence in God? I never did. 

Suppose a man made me a hundred promises, and he had ten 
years to fulfill them, and the next month the ten years will expire. 
He has fulfilled ninety-nine of the promises, and is able to fulfill the 
other. Would not I have good reason to trust him that he would 
fulfill it? Has not God fulfilled all his promises, and shall we doubt 
him, and say we cannot trust him? They that know him, trust him. 

I can imagine some one saying : " How am I going to know him 
or get acquainted with him?" I will read from the thirteenth verse 
of the tenth chapter of Romans: "For whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved; how then shall they call on him in 
whom they have not believed." A man will not call upon a man in 
whom he has no confidence. If you believe Jesus Christ is an im- 
postor, you will not call upon him. " And how shall they believe in 
him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without 
a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As 
it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them which bring the 
Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they 
have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath 
believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing 
by the word of God." 

Now, if men will not read the Bible or hear it proclaimed, how 
can it be expected they are going to believe? If a man will only 
acquaint himself with God, he will be at peace. Job says, " Ac- 
quaint thyself with him, and be at peace, thereby good shall come 
unto thee." If a man knows God, he will trust him. 

A party of gentlemen in Scotland wanted to get some eggs from 
a nest on the side of a precipice, and they tried to persuade a poor 
boy that lived near to go over and get them, saying they would hold 
him by a rope. They offered him a good deal of money to go; but 



TBUST. 81 

they were strangers to him, and he would not go. They told him 
they would see there was no accident happened to him; — they would 
fasten him securely. At last he said, "I will go if my father will 
hold the rope." He trusted his father. A man will not trust stran- 
gers. I want to get acquainted with a man before I put my con- 
fidence in him. I have known God for twenty years, and I have 
more confidence in God than I ever had before; it increases every 
year. In this Bible, some things that were dark ten years ago 
are plain to-night; and some things that are dark now will be plain 
ten years hence. We must take things by faith. You take the ex- 
istence of cities on the testimony of men that have been in those 
cities; and we ask you to take our testimony, who have found joy in 
believing. We ask you to trust in God. 

I will call your attention to the fruits of those who trust in God. 
The world is in pursuit of peace. If it could be sold at auction 
how many would bid very high for perfect peace. Many a man 
would go around the world and spend thousands of dollars if he 
could only get peace. That rich man spoken of in Scripture says: 
"I will tear down my barns and build larger, and then I will say to 
my soul, 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take 
thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' " That man was after peace. 
People think if they get money they will get peace. That is not 
my experience. If I want to get the testimony of those who know 
most about the peace of God, I would not go to the rich men of 
Philadelphia; I would rather be in the poor-house trusting in my 
God, than in the grandest palace in Philadelphia, if I did not know 
him. 

Turn to the 16th chapter of Proverbs at the 20th verse: "He 
that handleth a matter wisely shall find good; and whoso trusteth in 
the Lord, happy is he." Now you know men are after happiness. 
Some men, seeking an hour of happiness, try to find it at the 
theatre, circus, or some vile place. Here it is said the man who 
puts his trust in God is happy. Cannot you who are the children of 
God, from the depth of your heart say, "It is true; I am a thousand 
times happier than I was before I put my trust in God." Put your 
trust in God; that is the true source of happiness. Come up to the 
tree and pluck this fruit of happiness. "Happy is he" — that is 
what the Word of God says. 

Then you get something else. In the 32nd Psalm at the 10th 
verse, it is said: "He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass 
him about." The Lord deals in mercy with him. Mercy shall com- 
pass the man's path who puts his trust in God. I can imagine some 
people say: "I have tried to trust him over and over again; I do not 
believe what Mr. Moody says." The very word " try " implies you 
don't do it. If a man said, "I will try and believe you," it would 
imply I had deceived him sometime, and he had hard work to be- 
6 



82 TRUST. 

lieve what I told him. Drop the word "try," my friends, and 
put in the word "trust," and then you will have peace and joy. A 
great many put peace and joy and all those feelings before trust. 
Suppose I found men on the street laughing at the top of their voices; 
I come up to them and say: "I find you very happy ; why are you 
so happy?" They say, "We don't know." I say, "What is the 
reason?" They say, "We are so happy we cannot tell." I would 
pny they had gone clean mad. If you have peace and joy, you need 
to have some reason for it. It is because you put your trust in God. 
You must put your trust in God first. You do not have this peace 
and joy until you do put your trust in God. You are trusting your- 
self to keep your soul ; you have tried and failed ; stop trying and 
begin to trust in him, and say as Job : " Though he slay me, yet 
will I trust in him." Let the consequences be what they will, I will 
trust him. Are you not willing td say that? Are you not willing 
to come to that decision to-night? Is there anything to hinder you? 

About two weeks ago, I used this illustration in the inquiry-room. 
Suppose this book was one hundred thousand dollars ; my soul is 
worth more than that; no one would sell his soul for one hundred 
thousand dollars. If the money lay here no man would say: " I will 
give up all my hope of eternal life for one hundred thousand dol- 
lars." He would say: "What, sell my birthright for that ; no, ten 
thousand times no." There might be some reckless man would; but 
I doubt it. Suppose I have this one hundred thousand dollars ; I 
am afraid some thieves will break through and steel it from me ; I 
am anxious about it. I take it to the best bank in Philadelphia, and 
I deposit it. I trust the bank to keep that money for me. St. Paul 
says: " I know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he 
is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that 
day." He is able to keep my deposit; that is the true meaning of 
it. Will you make your deposit to-night? Will you not trust him 
with all your heart to save you? I tell you he will do it, if you 
trust him. The Lord does not tell you to do something that is im- 
possible for you to do, and then punish you if you do not do it. 
With the command comes the power to obey. When Christ said to 
the man with the withered hand, " Stretch forth thine hand," the 
man might have said, "I have tried, and I cannot do it." With the 
command came the power. With the command to trust in the .Lord, 
comes the power to obey. Don't let the devil deceive you by 
telling you you cannot trust him. Make up your mind that you 
will trust him. from this hour; and you will do it. 

As I was preaching at one of our meetings I noticed a lady look- 
ing very steadily at me, and she seemed to fetch home to her heart 
every word that fell from my lips. After the sermon I went down and 
asked her if she was a Christian. She said: "No, but I wish I was, 
I hare b<^n seeking Christ for three years, and I cannot find him. 



TRUST. 83 

What am I to do?" Says I, "There must be some mistake. Why I 
know he has been seeking you for twenty years; and it' you have 
been seeking him, you would have met long before now." She 
said, "What am I to do?" I said: "Do nothing, just believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and be saved." She said: "I have heard that un- 
til my head aches. Every body says believe, believe, believe; and I 
am none the wiser." I said, "I will drop that word." I said: "Trust 
the Lord Jesus Christ, as you stand here." She said: " If I say I 
will trust the Lord, will he save me." I said: "No, you might say 
that a thousand times, and not do it. Will you do it?" She said: 
" I trust the Lord Jesus Christ with all my soul, and I don't 
feel any difference." I said: "You have been seeking after feel- 
ing, you have been seeking for feeling in your heart. Now, there 
is no promise in the Word of God where you will get feeling. 
There is no verse, from Genesis to Revelation, where feeling is at- 
tached to salvation." I quoted, "He is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto him." "Now, I said, "will you not put your 
trust in him? Trust him, and let your feelings take care of them- 
selves." She looked at me about five minutes it seemed, but I don't 
suppose it was more than one; and then she reached out her hand, 
and said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ this night to save my soul." 
There was no tear, no prayer, but there was a decision. " I trust." 
She turned to the pastor of the church, and calling him by name, 
said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save my soul." Turning to 
one of the elders she said: "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save my 
soul." She started and went down the aisle, and just as she was 
going out the door she met another officer of the church, and she 
said: "I am trusting Jesus to save me." The next night she was in 
front of me. I did not have to go down that night and ask her if she 
loved Jesus. At the close of the meeting she was the first to go into 
the inquiry-room, and when I got in there she had her arm around a 
young lady's neck, and she was saying: " It is only to trust him." 
She led more souls to Christ in two weeks in that church than any- 
one. If you trust him to-night, it will be the best Sabbath in all 
your life. 

The time has come for us to close these Sunday night meetings. 
Probably this is the last Sunday night service we will nave. Some 
of you have been here nine Sunday nights; and now on this last night 
what are you going to do ? Are you going on distrusting God; or 
are you going to put your trust in him? Let this be the golden 
night — the blessed night of your salvation. Let this be the night of 
your decision. Now take Job's motto, " Though he slay me, yet 
will I trust in him." Say : "I will trust him, in spite of my doubts 
or my feelings; in spite of the devil. In spite of the powers of dark- 
ness and the devil combined, I will trust him." Will yotf not lay 



84 TRUST. 

hold on eternal life? As you are sweeping on towards the judg- 
ment, lay hold upon it. 

There was a man on a broken raft, in the river at Pittsburgh, and 
the news spread rapidly that the man was in danger: In coming 
down the stream, he would have to pass three bridges. At the 
first bridge a rope was let down, but he missed it. The people 
shouted to him to catch the rope at the second bridge. He missed 
that; and now his last hope is to catch the rope at the third bridge. 
He comes near the last bridge, and he seizes the rope, and is drawn 
up out of the jaws of death. Sinner, it may be that the rope is held 
here for you to-night for the last time. I beg of you to lay hold of 
it. Don't go out of this building without laying hold of it. Christ 
is near, if you will have him. Young man, will you have him? 
Thank God, he says he will. Is it not the most reasonable thing 
you can do to put your trust in him to-night? 

I can imagine some of you saying, u i don't see it yet." Suppose 
you are in a brick building five stories high, which is on fire; and the 
names have got round the stairs, leaving no way for you to save 
yourself. Up comes a fire-escape, and a man shouts to you, " Leap 
into the fire-escape!" Wouldn't you do it? If you stay there, you 
perish. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the fire-escape. Will you 
not leap to-night into his arms. Will you say from this hour, 
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Did you ever hear or 
read of a man regretting in his dying hour that he put his trust in 
God? Did you ever hear of such a man? Can any infidel say that 
he has heard of such a man? You have seen and heard of many a 
man regretting that he had not trusted him more. You have seen 
men die without God and without hope, that have regretted not put- 
ting their trust in him; but never a man regretted trusting him. 
During the war I saw men die without God and without hope; and 
I can say there is as much difference between a man dying in a glo- 
rious hope of immortality and the man dying without hope, as 
there is between Heaven and hell, or darkness and light. It is a ter- 
rible thing for a man without hope to feel the cold, icy hand of 
Death upon him. What will you do in the swelling of Jordan with- 
out Christ, if you do not put your trust in him ? 

I remember coming down the Tennessee River after a battle, and 
we had four hundred and fifty wounded men on board the vessel. 
A good many of them were mortally wounded. A few of us had 
gone to look after their temporal and spiritual wants; and we made 
up our minds we would not let a man die on the boat without telling 
him of Christ and Heaven — that we would tell them of Christ as we 
gave them a cup of cold water. We found one young man uncon- 
scious. His ieg had been amputated, and he was sinking rapidly. I 
asked the doctor, "Will this man live?" The doctor said: " We 
have amputated one of his legs, and he has lost so much blood he has 



TRUST. 85 

got to die." I said: "Is there anything you can do to restore con- 
sciousness?" The doctor said: " Give him a little brandy and water, 
and it will bring him to for a few minutes." I gave him the brandy and 
water, and I said to the man next to him, "Do you know this young 
man?" His eye brightened up and he said: "We came from the 
same town; we belong to the same company; we enlisted together." 
I said, "Where does his father and mother live?" The man said: 
"His father is dead, his mother, is a widow." I thought the mother 
would be anxious to get some message from her boy, and I asked if 
she was a Christian. He said: " Yes, she is a godly woman." 

"Has he any brothers or sisters?" 

"He is an only son; but he has two sisters." 

Then I was anxious to get some message from the son to the 
widowed mother. I lingered around some time, and every once in a 
while I would speak the young man's name. After I had spoken his 
name a number of times, he opened his eyes — beautiful black eyes. 
I gave him a little more brandy and water, and said: "William, do 
you know where you are?" He says, "Oh, yes; I am on my way 
home to mother." I said: "The doctor told me you can not live. 
Have you any message to send to your mother?" He said, " Tell 
my mother that I died trusting in Christ." Oh, how sweet it was. 
It seemed as if I was at the very gate of Heaven. I said, "Is there 
anything else?" He was sinking rapidly, but he said: "Yes, tell my 
mother and sisters to be sure and meet me in Heaven." In a few 
minutes he was unconscious, and in a few hours he died. What a 
glorious end. " Tell my mother I died trusting in Christ." 

Put your trust in Christ. He sticketh closer than a brother. Now 
I beg of you, at the close of this meeting, to bow your heads and 
put your trust in him. Say like Job, "I will trust him from this 
hour." Lay hold on eternal life. May God bring hundreds and thou- 
sands to trust in him to-nio*ht. 

o 



NEW. 

" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom." John 3: 3. 

I suppose there is not a man in Philadelphia but has had a great 
many persons wish him "A Happy New Year!" I suppose you have 
had hundreds or thousands wish you that, during the past forty- 
eight hours. Jt is one thing to wish a man "A Happy New Year," 
and another thing to tell him how to make it happy. I want to tell 
you to-night, if I can, how to make it a happy New Year. I have no 
doubt there are hundreds, if not thousands, in this audience who are 
making new plans for the future. Many are making new resolutions, 
and many have pledged themselves, perhaps to their mothers or 
wives, that they will not drink any more strong drink. You have 
entered into new covenants. You know it is a time when we look 
back over the past, and take a look into the future. A person must 
be very thoughtless who does not stop at these mile-stones, and con- 
sider where he is going, and how things are going on with him. 
Business men are now taking account of stock, to see what their 
profits and losses have been. It is well for everyone to stop at the 
commencement of a new year, and look over his past life; and see 
where he is, and what he is, and where he is going. 

Some men say: "I am going to break off this habit of swearing; 
I am going to swear no more; I am going to reform." I have heard 
men talk in that way. I was for a number of years connected with 
the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago, and that brought 
me into contact with a great many young men. I wrote out a great 
many pledges for them. I wrote out resolutions for men to sig-n, to 
bind them by putting their names to a piece of paper. I have 
known men to open their veins and write out resolutions in their 
own blood, and break them as quick as they made them. I found I 
was wasting my time, ink and paper in writing out those resolutions. 
All the pledges I got men to make away from Christ, did not amount 
to anything. There are hundreds now making that same mistake. 
You have tried it before; you have tried it hundreds of times. You 
have given your word that you would do this and do that, and you 
have thought that you would reform; but you have failed every 
time. You are trying to do what God could not do himself; that is, 
to mend this old erring nature. 

Now, to-night I will tell you how to make this year a happy new 
year. And my text you will find in one word — " New." 

It is a New Year, and I want to give you seven new things. The 
86 



NEW. 8? 

first is a new birth — a new heart, and until you get that all your res- 
olutions are good for nothing. We are no match for Satan. Man 
wants not to be reconstructed, but to be regenerated and born of 
the Spirit. We must have a new birth. I have no hope of any re- 
formation, or any change, until a man is born again. "Except a 
man be born again," says Christ, "he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." That is what we want to preach this first Sunday of the 
year, — a new birth. 

Some people say it is "culture" men want. Well, that does not 
reform them. Some of the greatest rascals we have in this country 
are men of culture. Some say it is education, but some of the worst 
men we have are educated men. That is not regeneration. Educa- 
tion, culture, and science, may be good in their place; but they can- 
not take the place of a new birth. You cannot make flesh any bet- 
ter; but when the new nature comes, then you can keep the flesh 
down. Have you been born again? If you have not, let me make 
this statement again. When the kingdom of God is planted within 
you, you can serve God and not before. I was told before I was 
converted, that I was to keep the law, and that law that came from 
Sinai was a heavenly law. But what man wants is to be born of 
God, God is a Spirit, and they that worship God must worship him 
in spirit arid in truth. No earthly change can take the place of this 
new birth. I would a great deal rather preach to thieves and vaga- 
bonds than to good moralists, because it is hard to convince them 
that they need a Savior. But these men that have already learned 
that lesson see the importance of getting out of themselves, and get- 
ting into Christ. Not but it is better to be a moral than an immoral 
man, and to be a temperate man than to be a drunkard; but if a 
man makes his morals his God, he has a false hope of heaven. God 
never mends anything; he creates anew. One of our citizens was 
telling me of some one in Philadelphia who built a house for him- 
self, and he wanted to make it imitation stone. So he just built of 
brick and put on a coating of plaster. Every winter the frost scaled 
the plaster off, and every spring he had to get it replastered. At 
last he got tired, and he took the front of the house out and put in 
brown stone, and he has not had to touch it since. It is a new house. 
He does not need to be patching up the old one. But that is what 
many men and women do in Philadelphia every year. They say 
they are going to begin a new life; and they begin to patch up the 
old nature, and they get worse than they were before. Now, my 
friends, all these resolutions will not do anything for you. They do 
not change you. It is a new creation you want. It is a new man. 
If you are born again, your yoke will be easy and your burden light. 

Suppose our legislators should make a law that no one in this 
country could keep. Suppose they should make a law that every 
person in this country should speak French within twenty -four 



88 



NEW. 



hours; and the penalty for not speaking it was death. I could not 
speak French to save my life. If you condemned me to death if I 
did not speak French, I should have to die. It would be an impossi- 
bility, just as it is an impossibility for heavenly minded people to live 
with this earthly nature. There is no one can keep the law of God 
unless he is born of God. The law was given to show man his lost 
condition, and to show him the impossibility of keeping it. The law 
is given that every mouth might be stopped, and every man become 
guilty before God. 

I heard a friend use this illustration, and it is to the point. A man 
has bought a farmland he finds on that farm an old pump. He goes 
to the pump and begins to pump. A person comes to him and says: 
"Look here, my friend, I want to warn you, you must not drink that 
water in that well, it is poison. The man who lived here before used 
that water, and it poisoned him, and his wife, and children." "Is 
that so," says the man. " Well, I will soon make that right. I will 
find a remedy." And he goes and gets some paint, and he paints 
up the pump, putties up all the holes, and fills up the cracks in it, 
and he has got a fine-looking pump. And he says, "Now I am sure 
it is all right." You would say: "What a fool; to go and paint- the 
pump when the water is bad." But that is just like what a man is 
doing who is trying to save himself. It is not a new pump that is 
wanted; it is new water. Make the fountain good and the stream 
will be good. It is new hearts that men want. You cannot keep 
these heavenly gifts with this earthly nature. Oh, that God may 
give every man a new heart! When we seek for God with all our 
hearts, we will find him. 

"Ye must be born again." Here is a man who is a leper. He 
says, "I want to cover up my leprosy." And he covers it up with 
his dress. But he is a leper all the same, as he was before. That is 
just what sinners are trying to do. They are trying to serve God 
and to serve the world, too. We are all born lepers, and it is God 
alone can cleanse us and reclaim us, If you are going to commence 
the new year right, make your heart right. If you put a uniform on 
a man it does not make him a soldier. He must enlist first, and then 
he is a soldier. If you attempt to put on the livery of heaven with- 
out being in God's kingdom, you are only a hypocrite. You may 
join some church and go through all the forms; you may become a 
member of the Sabbath-school and have charge of a class; but if you 
are not converted you will be worse and worse, and not better and 
better. You must have a new birth. We start life at the Cross. 
When the children of Israel were brought out of E^ypt, God said to 
them: "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months." 
The four hundred years they had been in Egypt, God rolled away. 
Those years were not counted. When you are converted, that is 
the time you are born. There are some people in this assembly 



NEW. 89 

very young. I see some boys fifteen years old, and see men here 
two or three weeks old. They have started for heaven; but they 
did not start until they were born of God. 

This being born of God is a mystery. Christ said to Nicodemus: 
kt The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. 
So is every one that is born of the Spirit." I cannot tell you about 
the wind. It may be blowing due north here, and fifty miles away 
it may be blowing due south. I do not understand about the cur- 
rents of this wind. Men that have gone up in balloons tell us they 
meet different currents of ah-, and you have sometimes seen the 
clouds, some sweeping as fast as they can north, and others going in 
a different direction. We cannot understand about the currents of 
wind, but we know that there is wind. " The wind bloweth where 
it listeth, and thou heareth the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born 
of the Spirit." In other words, it is Christ revealing himself to the 
soul. Christ coming into this heart is a new birth; and if I have 
Christ's life, [can challenge death. He may take this -clay; but we 
have a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

A few years ago, as I was coming out of a prayer-meeting, I met 
a man who asked me if I would introduce him to the leader of the 
meeting. I introduced him, and he sat down and talked to the min- 
ister. The minister having to leave, he asked me to talk to him: I 
asked the man what the trouble was. He said, "I was going by a 
church, yesterday, and I heard music. I went in and heard some 
singing. After the choir had got through, the minister gave out his 
text. I belong to the seed of Abraham, but I thought I would stay 
for a few minutes. The minister took for his text, 'It is appointed 
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.' I said, ' Perhaps 
that is true: my father and my grandfather have died. But "after 
death cometh the judgment." I do not believe that.' I got my 
hat and started out, but the text kept coming home to me, ' It is ap- 
pointed unto men once to die.' I tried to forget it. I went to bed 
in hopes to get asleep and forget about it. I lay upon my bed think- 
ing about it. The thought kept coming to me all night: ' It is ap- 
pointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.' In the 
morning the newspaper was put under the door, and I thought I 
would read it, and forget the text, but the first thing I noticed in the 
paper was an account of the meeting." He was very much troubled 
in his mind, and he said he did not know what the matter was. I 
said. " You want Christ." He said, " Don't talk to me about Christ, 
Talk to me about the God of Abraham; I believe in him." I said, 
"That is the trouble. You would have no trouble or fear of death 
and judgment if you believed in Christ." I preached Christ to him. 
He resented it. I turned to Isaiah and read to him: "He was 



90 



NEW. 



wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; 
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we 
are healed." I went on reading that chapter to him, but it did not 
seem to do him any good. Finally, after I had read a good deal, I 
said, " I will read to you the conversation Christ had when on earth, 
with a Jewish Rabbi," and I read: " There was a man of the Phari- 
sees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews." I read on, and when 
I came to the 14th verse — " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in 
the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," the Jew 
said, "Is that there in the New Testament?" I said, "Yes." "Well," 
said he, " I don't understand that. My father had a picture of Moses 
lifting up the serpent. Are you sure that is there?" I showed it to 
him and he looked over the words. I said, " Let us get down on our 
knees and pray." After I had prayed, I said to him, " You pray." 
He put his head on the floor, and cried out to the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and he said, " If there 
is anything true in this, reveal it to me." I asked him if there was 
any light. He said, " No." I prayed that the clear light of Calvary 
might break into his soul. He jumped up and said, " I see it ! I see 
it ! " I said, "Be calm. What did you see when you were pray- 
ing?" He said: "I was on the floor and I thought I saw Moses 
lifting up a serpent on a pole, and all at once the serpent vanished, 
and in the place of the serpent was -the cross, and on it Jesus of 
Nazareth. He was the Messiah." He had found the Savior. Oh, 
may God show you Christ to-night — Christ coming in the likeness 
of sinful flesh, and dying to bring us to himself. Oh, may God help 
you to see the Son of God as your only hope and Savior. 

The next thing is a new creation. We read in II. Corinthians, 5* 
17: "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old 
things are passed away : behold, all things are become new." In- 
fidels say: "We do not believe in sudden conversions, and in old 
things passing away ? and all things becoming new." If five thous- 
and men should tell me there was no reality in sudden conversions, 
I would not believe them. Twenty years ago last March, I was 
born anew — I was in a new world. The next morning I thought 
the sun shone brighter, and the birds sang sweeter than they ever 
did before. I thought all nature was praising God. Old things had 
passed away, and all things had become new. I was in a new world. 
I once asked a Scotch girl who had been converted if her heart was 
changed. She said she did not know her heart was changed, but 
either she was changed or the world was, for things were altogether 
different from what they once were. That is what we want to know: 
that old things have passed away, and all things have become new. 
A drunkard, when he becomes converted, will hate the wine cup; 
and a man who has been a blasphemer will begin to praise God. 
We must put off the old man, with his deeds, and put on the ne^v 



JSCEW. 91 

man. If conversion does not mean that, it does not mean anything. 
We cannot live as we have been living. We must be different. 
We want this new creation. Old things have passed away: all 
things have become new. Can you say that? If you cannot, your 
resolutions are good for nothing; they are worthless. If you have 
been born into the heavenly kingdom, all the things you once loved 
you will now care nothing for; and the things you once hated you 
will love. If I hated any place before I was converted, it was the 
church. If there was one sound I hated more than another, it was 
that of the church bell; but the next day after I was converted, it 
was the sweetest sound to me I ever heard. It was the new crea- 
tion — old things had passed away. 

The next point I would call your attention to is, we must have a 
new nature. I was a Christian ten years before I understood it. At 
that time I read a book written by an Englishman, which did me a 
world of good; and it would have been invaluable to me if I had 
read it when I was first converted. It taught me that when a man 
is converted, his conversion does not change his old nature: that 
which is born of the flesh is flesh, down to the end of time, and in- 
stead of God mending that and making it better, he brings in a new 
creation. He does not put a new piece in an old garment; it is a 
new coat. It is a new creation. So, when a man is converted, 
there comes a conflict between the two natures. A judge had a 
slave who knew the Lord. The judge said to him: "Sambo, how is 
it you are all the time talking about your conflicts? I never had any 
to fight." The colored man didn't know how to answer. One day 
the judge, who was a sportsman, went out upon the lake and fired 
at a flock of ducks, killing one and wounding another. They 
made a good deal of effort, and at last succeeded in getting the 
wounded duck, and then they picked up the dead one. Sambo had 
now his illustration. He said to the judge, "You are dead, and 
Satan has got you anyway; but I am trying to -get away from him, 
and he is after me." 

I have been fighting against the old nature for twenty years, and 
I have to watch continually. If I lean upon myself I am lifted up, 
and then down I go; but as long as I look to Jesus, he gives me the 
victory. I do not care what a slave you are to some terrible sin, the 
Son of God will give you the victory, if you will only come to him. 
You might as well tell a man to leap to the moon, as to tell him to 
serve God with the old nature. If we are made partakers of the 
heavenly nature, it will last as long as God lasts, for it comes from 
God. In other words, "it is the love of God planted in us. It is the 
incorruptible seed that cannot perish. Have you got it? Have you 
got the new nature? Are you a partaker of God's nature? If you 
are, then it is not hard to pray. I have heard men say, "It is so 
hard to pray." They have not the new nature. When they have 



92 NEW. 

the new nature, they cannot help communing with God. This new 
nature comes down from heaven. It is the life of Christ in the man. 
Paul says, "lean do all things through Christ." If I have Christ 
formed in me, then I can overcome the world, the flesh, and the 
devil. But there is no hope unless I become partaker of that new 
nature. Suppose you had stood by the side of Paul when he got to 
Damascus. You might have said, "Why, Paul, what has got over 
you? You are not the man you were when you left Jerusalem. 
Why, Paul, what do you mean? Do you now preach Christ? It is 
only a few days ago you were persecuting the Christians. Paul, 
what has come over you? You were the man who helped to stone 
Stephen. What does it mean?" It means that Paul has now that 
heavenly nature. He has been born again. He lives for Christ now. 
I hope the Lord will give this new nature to some here to-night, and 
make them trophies of his grace. Then the things that you now love 
you will hate. You will be a new man in Christ Jesus. You will 
be a citizen of another world. Some one asked a Scotchman if he 
was on his way to heaven. "Why, man," he said, "I live there." 
He was only a pilgrim here. He had the new life. God is the au- 
thor of life; and if you have the new life, it must be the work of God 
in the soul. 

The next point I would call your attention to is a new heart. 
Make up your mind not to leave this building until you have it. 
Some think they have not been converted, because they have the 
old nature. God will give you grace to crucify the old man. 

Then we must have a new name. We are no longer the children 
of earth, but we are children of God. In the 62d chapter of Isaiah, 
it is said: " Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of 
the Lord shall name." We read that they were first called Chris- 
tians at Antioch. We are now the Sons of God. Think of that. 
"Beloved, now are we the Sons of God." The world does not know 
it. We are born of God, and our life is where Satan cannot get at 
it. By and by Christ shall put us on the throne, and the world shall 
see it. Then we shall be like him; then shall we see the King in 
his beauty. As God looks down from his throne into this building, 
he says, " That little boy is my son." 

There was a boy down in Boston a few years ago, who was only 
four years old, but he was worth millions. He was heir to a great 
estate; but it did not appear so to him. He did not know what he 
was worth. So it may not appear that we are heirs to a throne. 
If we are heirs to a throne, should we not be training for it? You 
would think it would be a great honor if one of your children should 
be taken into the castle of Queen Victoria, and trained for the throne 
of England. That would be a wonderful thing. I bring you won- 
derful news; God wants to take us into his family, and train us for 
a kingdom that shall endure forever. When God adopts us into his 



NEW. 93 

family, we will take his name. We are Christians, followers of Christ, 
sons of a new Father. Do you want a new name to begin the year 
with? "Why not take it to-night? You can be a Christian to-night, 
and be adopted into God's family if you will. 

The next thing is a new way. We read in the 10th chapter of He- 
brews and 20th verse, that there is "a new and living way." If you 
have not accepted of that way, if you are not now children of God. 
you are on the road to death. The Lord Jesus has got to bring us 
into the new way, where we will find peace and joy — the way that 
leadeth to the Throne, where he reigns forever. Do you want to be 
brought into the new way? I never knew a man that regretted hav- 
ing taken the narrow way that leadeth unto life. The new way is 
better than the old way. Satan is the leader of every man that is in 
the old way. I was told some time ago of a king who, wanting to 
have some way of putting criminals to death as fast as possible, had 
lour steps made in a dark passage leading to the edge of a pit. As the 
criminals stepped from the fourth step, down they went. So it is 
with those who walk in the broad way; by and by they will take the 
fourth step, and then they are lost for ever. Oh, may God wake you 
up to see your danger! I will ask every one here that has been on 
both ways if he cannot bear testimony that the new way is the best. 
[Cries of "Yes' Yes!"] No one but the devil will tell you the 
broad way is the best. 

Then a man having got a new way wants a new tongue. The Lord 
says in Mark xvi. 17, " They shall speak with new tongues." When 
a person is converted he has a new heart, and he must have a new 
tongue to go w th it. Peter was denying his Lord; a few days after 
he was preaching with the eloquence of heaven. The Lord gave 
him a new tongue, and three thousand persons were converted under 
one sermon. Oh, may God give us new tongues, to-night, that we 
may praise him. I heard a young man cursing his mother because 
she would not give him money to gamble with, and in twenty-four 
hours God used that to convict him, and he asked his mother's for- 
giveness. Within twenty-four hours he got a new tongue. That 
was sudden conversion. How easy it is for us to praise God when 
we have new tongues. Then there is no cursing; lying, blaspheming 
and cursing are gone. 

Then God gives us a new song. The first song that is recorded in 
Scripture, and the first time the word is used in Scripture, was after 
the children of Israel has been redeemed from the king of Egypt. It 
was the song of redemption. No one can sing the song of Zion from 
the heart except he is born of God. I have no patience with the 
opera singers in the churches. I believe such singing is an abomi- 
nation to God J beiieve that God detests it. If we have the heart 
to sing, we will have no trouble about singing. If y u do not praise 
God from the heart, you may deceive the congregation; but you can- 



94 



NEW 



not deceive God. David says: "He brought me out of the horrible 
pit, he put a new song into my mouth." When I was converted I 
could sing in my heart as well as Mr. Sankey; but I couldn't get it 
out of my lips. He put a new song in my heart. A converted man 
will never want to sing those low comic songs. You will not want 
to sing of earth; you will want to sing of heaven. Did you ever 
hear oi a skeptic when dying wanting to have an earthly song sung 
to him? But Christians when dying have often asked to have friends 
come in and sing — 

"Jesus, lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly." 

In one of our hospitals, a lady who was dying: asked me to sing to 
her. I quoted the words, and I tried to sing them, but I broke 
down. At last the dying woman tried to sing the hymn herself, but 
before she got through the words died away on her lips, and she 
went up to heaven. God will give you a new song to-night; he will 
give you a new tongue; he will give you a new name; he will give 
you a new nature; a new heart, a new creation and a new birth. 
You can have all these new things, if you will commence the new 
year by giving your heart to God. I hope there are many here who 
will bo drawn into his kingdom. Will you not have him to-night? 
1 would like to talk about the "new food" Christians are to feed upon, 
and the "new friends" they are to have, but I have not time to dwell 
upon the subject to-night. 

I see a good many boys here, and I hope I have been plain in 
speaking, so that I have been understood. I want to say to the boys, 
You can take this new nature, and God can use you to bring your 
friends to Christ. A little boy came into the inquiry-room this after- 
noon, and he came up to me and said: "Cannot you give me some- 
thing to do; I want to lead some one to Christ." It was grand to see 
that spirit. The Scripture says: "The calf and the young lion and 
the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." I remem- 
ber some time ago of a little boy that became a Christian. His 
father, like a great many men in this city, was a profane, drinking 
man, and he would not allow a minister to come into his house. 
Some one got hold of the little boy and led him around to the Sab- 
bath-school, and he there found the Savior. He had got a new heart. 
His father found him praying on his knees, and he got very angry. 
He took him off his knees, and asked him what he was doing. The 
boy said he was praying that Jesus would make him a good boy. 
His father said: " You have heard me say I would not have anyone 
living under my roof that praye$. I do not want you to pray any 
more, If I catch you praying I will flog you." When Christ gets 
into the heart, no flogging will keep us from him. The boy prayed 
in secret. He was obedient, kind and affectionate, and he tried to 
honor Christ. His father did all he could to keep the boy at home, 



NEW. 95 

and to keep him from praying; but one day he again found him on 
his knees, praying. His father was very angry. He flogged the 
boy, and said to him in a great rage and with an oath, that if he 
caught him praying again he would make him leave the house. The 
lad kept on praying in secret that God would convert his father; and 
it was not long before his father again found him praying. He 
ordered him to leave the house, and take his things with him. . He 
did not have many things to take away. Drunkards' children do 
not have many things. He took his little bundle and started. He 
went down to the kitchen where his mother was, and walked up to 
her and said, "Good-bye, mother." The mother said, "My boy, 
where are you going?" He said, "I don't know." The mother said, 
" What do you mean then by bidding me good-bye?" " Father says 
I cannot stay at home any longer, because I have been praying." 
His mother knew it would do no good to remonstrate, so she took 
her boy to her bosom and kissed him. She did not know when she 
would ever see him again. He went to his little brother and kissed 
him, and bid him good-bye, and then he went to his little sister and 
kissed her; and then he left the house. He bid his father good-bye, 
and told him that as long as he lived he would pray for him, and 
away he went, not knowing where he was going. The boy had not 
gone a great way before the father's heart was touched. The Holy 
Spirit had touched the father's heart. He ran down the street and 
overtook the boy and said, " If religion will do this for you, I want 
it." That little boy had the privilege of leading his father to Christ. 
May }^ou know what it is in the beginning of this new year to have 
Christ in your heart. Then you will commence the new year sing* 
ing the new song. 



BEHOLD. 

"Behold—." Psalm 51: 5. 

I want to call your attention to one word in the 51st Psalm, "Be- 
hold." That word means, "Look with attention." If I said, "Look 
and see" — how your eyes would go to the wall to see what I saw. 
The Lord says that to attract attention. When I am giving out a 
text, some of you are looking at the people around you, at some hat, 
or the shape of some bonnet. Look! Behold! God wants your at- 
tention: it is something important. Now the Psalmist says: "Be- 
hold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive 
me." I have learned this, — that the first thing we want to get a 
man to do is to learn the lesson that there is nothing good about him, 
that he was shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin. The nearer a 
man gets to God, the more he finds that out. A man does not know 
himself; he thinks he is a great deal better than he is. But the mo- 
ment he sees himself in God's looking-glass he says, "I was shapen 
in iniquity." " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desper- 
ately wicked." Every one has to learn that lesson. Daniel in the 
10th chapter of his prophecies says: " My comeliness was turned in 
me into corruption, and I retained no strength." God was coming 
near him. Look at Job. If you had Job here, you would think he 
was the noblest man in Philadelphia; he would stand very high in 
the community; yet Job had to learn the lesson. He said: "I fed 
the hungry and clothed the naked. I did this and that and the 
other." At last the Lord said: "Now Job, you gird up your loins 
like a man, and I will put a few questions to you." And the mo- 
ment the Lord spoke to him, he cried out: " Behold, I am vile; what 
shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth, and I 
will speak no more." Another word cannot be got out of Job. " I 
have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye 
seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and 
ashes." When man comes to see God, he is in the dust, where he 
belongs. Look at that wonderful man Isaiah, how beautiful he 
wrote. Turn to the 6th chapter. He saw God high and lifted up 
on his throne, and he cried out: "Woe is me; for I am undone, be- 
cause I am a man of unclean lips, and J dwell in the midstof a people 
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 
Then came an angel and took a coal of fire from the altar and put it 
upon his lips and purged away his iniquity, and he says, "Here am I, 
send me." He was ready; but he had to learn the lesson that he 
96 



BEHOLD. 97 

was born in sin and shapen in iniquity. Thanks be to God, there is 
a better way than that. We don't like to hear how vile and sinful 
we are, but at the same time it is important that we know it; be- 
cause if we don't we will not believe the good news of the gospel. 

The next "behold" is, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great 
joy." What is the good tidings? What is the gospel? Three or 
four times I have tried to bring out the word "gospel," and tell you 
what it is. The gospel was proclaimed to Cornelius in the 10th 
chapter of Acts, when Peter told him how Christ had died and had 
risen, and ascended to God in Heaven. Paul says: " I declare unto 
you the gospel, how Christ died for our sins, and how he was buried 
and rose again." He has died for our sins, and if we believe the 
gospel we are saved. Away on the northern coast, some time ago, 
there was a vessel wrecked; and among those on that vessel who 
lost their lives was a mother, with a little babe in her arms. When 
they found her body on the shore, that babe was clasped to her 
bosom. They attempted to separate them, but they found it so diffi- 
cult that they buried them together. So Christ took the burden of 
sin, and went down to the grave, and burst asunder the bars of 
death, and took it up to Heaven. He died, and rose, and ascended: 
and he is at the right hand of God for me. We have only to ap- 
propriate him, and he is ours. It is good tidings. 

There is a story an Englishman called my attention to, in reference 
to Jonathan's son. I can see David and Jonathan in the fields to- 
gether. It had been revealed to Jonathan that David was to take 
his father's throne, and Jonathan's place. Jonathan seems to be the 
most lovely character in the Bible. Instead of being jealous of 
David, he loved him as he loved his own life. He said to David: 
"Make me this promise: When you get my father's throne, if there 
is any left of my father's house, you will show them kindness." "Oh, 
yes," says David; "I will do that for you." The years rolled on. 
You know the story of David and Saul : how Saul hunted him as 
you would a partridge upon the mountains ; how he drove him off 
into the cave of Adullam, an exile in a foreign land; how Israel had 
been defeated, and Saul had fallen, and Jonathan by his side ; how 
when David heard of it, he came to Hebron, and established his 
throne and reigned there; how he went to Jerusalem and conquered 
that city, and established his throne and reigned there, and built a 
palace. While walking in his palace, that vow which he made to 
Jonathan came back to him. "Why, I made a promise to Jonathan." 
He brought his servant into his presence and asked him : " Is there 
any of the house of Saul left, that I may show him kindness." 
David's servant looks at him. What ! David want to show kind- 
ness to the house of Saul, to Saul that tried to kill him, — that tried 
to slay him ! He want to show kindness to the house of Saul ! 
That is grace. And the servant said: "One of the old servants of 
7 



98 BEHOLD. 

Saul is here, and he can tell whether there is any of the house of 
Saul left." He was called in, and David said: "Is there any of the 
house of Saul left, that I can show kindness unto them?" " Yes," 
said Ziba; "yes, there is one. Jonathan has a son." "What!" 
David says; "that Jonathan, has he got a son? Where is he?" 
When the news had come that Jonathan had been slain, the servant 
took up Mephibosheth, and she tripped and fell, and lamed him on 
both his feet. They were afraid that David would take his life, and 
they hid him. Where do you suppose he was? He was down to 
Lodebar. Did you ever hear of that place before? Perhaps some 
of you work in the Post Office, and have never seen a letter directed 
to Lodebar. You never heard of Lodebar before. Perhaps some 
of you have been around the world and never were in Lodebar. If 
you think you never were there, you are mistaken. There is not a 
man in Philadelphia but has been there. All of Adam's sons have 
been there. It is not a great ways from Philadelphia. It is a 
place of no pasture. That is where every poor sinner is to-night, 
hiding away from the living God. Poor, lame Mephibosheth was 
away in a place of no pasture, hiding away from David, the best 
friend he had. I can see David's heart begin to swell, and he says: 
"Go fetch him." That is fetching grace. Some people would have 
said: "Let him stay there; but if he comes here, I will have com- 
passion on him." David says: "Go fetch him." That is the spirit 
of the Gospel. I can see the servant bringing out David's chariot.,, 
and going away to where Mephibosheth is. He sees Mephibosheth, 
and calls out, "I have glad tidings for you." "What is it?" said 
Mephibosheth. " David has sent for you; he wants to show you the 
kindness of God; he wants you to come to Jerusalem." Mephi- 
bosheth trembles from head to foot, and says, " I am afraid he is 
going to take my life." Says the messenger: "It is true; David 
wants to show you the kindness of God." And they take the poor, 
lame Mephibosheth up in a chariot. I see the chariot sweeping 
down the streets of Jerusalem. David is going to show him the 
kindness of God. The king does not stand upon his dignity, but 
rushes to the door to meet him. And they bring him to the king. 
Mephibosheth goes down on his face; he is afraid it is not good news. 
The first thing David says, is, " Mephibosheth, I restore you all Saul's 
possession." He got it all in one word. That is the Gospel. We 
get everything Adam lost, and a great deal more. David said: "1 
restore the land of Saul, thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my 
table continually." Poor, lame Mephibosheth now dwelt at the pal- 
ace of the king, and sat down at the king's table. David brought 
him up from Lodebar, introduced him into the royal palace, and made 
him a member of his family. Christ wants you to come to Jerusalem 
to-night, and eat at his table. If poor Mephibosheth had been like 
many Christians, he would have looked at his lameness, and at his- 



BEHOLD. 99 

club feet all the time. I can imagine he put his feet under the table, 
and he looked the king in his face. He was not going to find fault 
with his lameness. If you look upon your lameness, remember the 
message, and come to Jerusalem and sit down at the king's table. 
If you stay at Lodebar, it is not because God wants you there. You 
have gone to Lodebar, and hid away from a loving king. You can 
come up and associate with the royalty of Heaven to-night, if you 
will come. Behold I bring you good tidings; and that good tidings 
is, the Lord wants you to come to Jerusalem. 

Next: " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of 
the world." Now, my dear friends, instead of your looking at your- 
self and trying to take away your sin, lift your eye away from your- 
self, and let it rest upon the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin 
of the world. That is what Christ was given for: " His name shall 
be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." You can- 
not save yourself. Look at Jesus, from the cradle to the cross, as he 
went through the towns and villages of Palestine, restoring sight to 
the blind and causing the deaf to hear. People lifted up their voice 
at one time and said, " He hath done all things well." Behold him 
at Gethsemane. See him there, solitary and alone; his disciples 
sleeping around him, for they were weary. There is the Son of God. 
Draw near and look at him. Gaze upon him, and as you get near 
him you can see the blood. He sweat, as it were, great drops of 
blood. The hour was coming when the sin of the world was to be 
laid upon him. In a few short hours he was to be condemned by 
his countrymen to die the cruel death of the cross. The cross throws 
its dark shadow across his path. Oh, sinner, gaze upon him! He is 
your substitute. He is yours to-night. He became yours, and you 
are a free man. Look at him before the Sanhedrim. Hear him as 
those witnesses come in and testify against him. Go to Calvary 
with me. Look at those three men; Christ in the midst of those 
thieves. Look into that eye; look into that face. Hear that piercing 
cry, and then tell me he is not able to save you. Will you say he 
has no power to save you to-night? Oh, behold him, as he comes 
up out of the sepulchre! See the mighty power he had as he as- 
cended from the grave. Then look at him as he goes sweeping 
through space, on his way home. There he is at the right hand of 
God. I don't ask you to look at him in the tomb; but see him at 
the right hand of God in heaven. His voice on high comes rolling 
down from the throne to-night: "All power is given to me in 
heaven and on earth." And will you say that he cannot save you, 
that he has no power to save you? Is his arm shortened that he can- 
not deliver? Is his ear grown heavy that he cannot hear the poor 
sinner? All power is given to him. Oh, this night he has power to 
save you! This night, if you gaze upon him as your Savior and Re- 
deemer, you can be saved. 



100 BEHOLD. 

There is a " behold" Paul brought out. " Behold, now is the ac- 
cepted time." Suppose I should stand here and say, "Every one of 
you had better put off salvation for a year," how you would go out 
of this building, shaking your heads and saying: "I will not go to 
hear that preacher again; what he preaches is right against the word 
of God." If I should say, " Behold, 1877 is the time to seek the 
kingdom of God," many of you would be so disgusted you would try 
to get out before the doors were open. You would say, " What 
right has the man to preach that doctrine?" And yet when we say, 
"Now is the accepted time," you say: "He wants to drive us to a 
decision; there is time enough." The only time I have to preach the 
gospel is JVow. I cannot find anywhere in the Bible that I may 
preach it to-morrow. All through the Scripture it is over and over 
again impressed upon those that preach the gospel that they are to 
urge every man to decide the question at once: " Behold now is the 
accepted time." The little word " now," oh, may it ring down in 
your soul to-night! May it sink into the heart of every person here. 
Why, just think of those in yonder world of light. Now, they are 
with the King in his beauty; now, they move along to those man- 
sions; now, they walk down the crystal pavement of Heaven; now, 
they walk by that crystal river; now, they walk by the tree of life and 
pluck its fruit. They are now in Heaven. Think of those who were 
in this city a year ago. Some of them are now lost. They are lift- 
ing up their voices in torment, and are weeping over lost opportuni- 
ties. Perhaps men who were a year ago as well in health as you 
are to-night, are now weeping over their lost souls. Now what are 
vou doing here to-nisrht? Are you rejecting the Son of God? reject- 
ing salvation? rejecting eternal life? Oh, may God press it upon 
you! Will not you take Christ to-night as your Savior? Take him 
now. 

There is another "Behold" in that verse: "Behold now is the 
day of salvation." Now, this 14th day of January, 1876, is the day 
of salvation. I cannot tell you the 15th day of January, 1876, will be 
the day of salvation. I don't know that it will ever come. God 
shuts us up to that little word " now." " Behold, now is the day of 
salvation." 

There is a story told that a man was seen in the Niagara river. 
His boat was capsized, and he was sweeping along towards the rap- 
ids, A man on the shore saw his danger, and ran to the bridge on 
the American side. He saw where the man was coming under the 
bridge, and he let himself down and put his hand out, and cried to 
the man, " Lay hold on my hand." That was his chance. Now, he 
had to do it. He seized the man's hand, and the man drew him up 
out of the jaws of death. The Savior puts down his hand to-night. 
JVow believe; now be saved. If that man had missed the bridge, 
there was no hope for him. Every man that has gone over that 



BEHOLD. 101 

cataract has lost bis life. Every man that dies without hope is lost 
forever. 

My little boy God calls thee to-night. Young man, God calls thee 
to-night. " Behold, now is the day of salvation." Are you going to 
let these meetings close, and leave you outside of the ark? Are you 
going to let these special meetings close, and you be left unsaved? 
Will there ever be a better opportunity than to-night to seek the 
kingdon of God? Will Christ ever be more willing than now to save 
you? "Now, is the day of salvation." Why put it off? 

But there is another "behold." I have spoken of it a number of 
times, but I will bring it up again because it brings Christ so near: 
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." How near that brings 
him. Does he stand knocking at the door of this building? He 
stands nearer than that. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." 
What door? The door of your heart. Yes, the door of your heart, 
young man. "I stand at the door and knock." He calls, "Behold!" 
In another place the Scripture says, " My head is filled with dew, 
and my locks with the drops of the night." He has waited long. He 
has come hundreds of times; but, like King Agrippa, you have said: 
" Go thy way this time, and when I have a convenient season I will 
call for thee." Have you called for him? He has waited for ten, 
twenty, thirty, forty and fifty years for some of you; and that con- 
venient time has not come. Again he crosses your path. Does your 
heart throb? That is Christ knocking. As he stands at the door, 
knocking, what does he say? "If any man" — thank God for those 
words — "If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come 
in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Will you lit 
him in to-night? Sinner, will you open the door and let him in? 

I was the o-uest of a friend in Dublin, and I set out one morning 
to go to meeting, and I found the door was locked so that I could 
not get out. I unlocked it, and tried to get out; but I found it 
chained. I unfastened the chain, and then I found it was bolted. I 
pulled back the bolt, and found another bolt. I pulled it back and 
found there was a secret lock. I unlocked that, and so got out. I 
thought, then, that that was the way with every sinner's heart. It 
is locked, chained, barred, and bolted to keep out the Son of God. 
Pull back those bolts, unlock the door, and say: "King of glory, 
come in;" and he will come. Will you let him in to-night? 

Young man, what are you going to do with him to-night? Father, 
mother, what are you going to do with him to-night? Are you go- 
ing to say with Felix: "Go thy way, I have no time"? The next 
call may be death himself. With a cold, icy hand he may lay hold 
of the door. You may have it bolted and barred; but the moment 
he puts his hand upon it, he will open it; and he will lay his icy 
hand upon you and say,' "Come with me." You cannot say to him, 
"I have no time." He will not be turned away. He will say, "I 



102 



BEHOLD. 



have no time to linger." I can imagine his coming to a man who 
says, "Give me twenty-four hours." " No, I cannot give you twen- 
ty-four hours." "Give me one hour." "No, I cannot give you a 
minute." And away he takes him. No chance for Christ now. He 
rushes into eternity in the twinkling of an eye, without God and 
without hope. 

" Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Sinner, if you don't 
believe me to-night, believe that godly woman at your side. Say to 
her, What shall I do with Jesus to-night? Shall I turn him away? 
Ask that godly wife, What shall I do with Jesus? And she will say, 
"Let him in." Young man, ask that Sabbath-school teacher that has 
brought you here to-night if the preacher is not right, and if you had 
not better let Christ in; and see if that Sabbath-school teacher will 
not join me to-night. Every godly mother and every godly father 
will say you had better let him in to-night. Every Christian will 
say you ought to let him in. While he stands knocking, don't turn 
him away. 

The next " behold" is: " Behold he prayeth." There may be some 
men here greatly opposed to these meetings — men who have 
come out of curiosity, or men who have come to ridicule 
and • make sport; but I don't think there is any man here so 
unpromising as Saul of Tarsus was. If any man had said Saul would 
be converted before he got to Damascus, he would not have been 
believed. Yet as he draws near, Christ speaks to him. He com- 
mences knocking at the door of Saul's heart, and Saul cries, "Who 
is there?" The answer comes to him, "It is Jesus." The first thing 
Saul did was to let him in. He cried out: "Lord, what wilt Thou 
have me to do?" And the Lord said: "Enter into Damascus, and I will 
tell thee." And they led him into a street called Straight. 
And the word of the Lord came to Ananias from heaven . There 
was not any one on earth would believe that Saul was con- 
verted; but the news went to heaven, and came back to Ananias. 
The Lord said, "You go and tell Saul what he is to do." Ananias 
says: "I have heard a good deal about that man. I have heard it 
from many and many different ones, that Saul is coming from Jerusa- 
lem ; and he has papers giving him authority to imprison the disci- 
ples of the Lord. He will take you, Ananias, and put you into prison, 
and all that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." I can imagine An- 
anias keeping his house bolted; and now, instead of getting bad news, 
he gets the best of news. "Ananias, Saul is praying. Tell him 
what he must do to be saved." They heard it in heaven before it 
was heard on earth. The moment Saul cried out, "Lord, what wilt 
Thou have me to do," it was heard in heaven; and the news came 
from there to Damascus that he prayeth. I hope the news will go 
on High to-night, "Behold he prayeth." This night ask the Lord to 
save you. If you seek him with all your heart, you will find him. 



INSTANT SALVATION. 103 

Among the inquirers I talked with this afternoon was a young miss 
about fifteen years of age. She said, " I want to become a Chris- 
tian." She said: "I lost a valuable diamond the other day, and I 
asked the Lord to help me find it, and he did so." I said: " Ask 
him to save your soul, as you sought for the lost diamond, and let 
that be the uppermost thought in your heart." I never saw a man 
that sought God with all his heart but found him. Let the news go 
to heaven, "Behold he prayeth." 



INSTANT SALVATION. 

"And a man shall be as a hiding-place."— Isaiah 32: 2. 

Instant salvation ! — In other words, How can every soul in this 
building be saved to-night? Now, if there are any that go out of 
this hall that are not saved, there will be but one reason for it. It 
will be because they do not want to be saved. There is salvation 
for every soul that wants it. That is what the Scripture teaches. If 
the Bible teaches any one thing, it teaches us that a man can be 
saved if he wants to. I want to ask: Do you want to be saved ? 
have you come to-night for that purpose ? Or have you just 
come here to see the audience ? or have you come here to sing ? or 
out of idle curiosity ? or because you have not anywhere else to go 
this evening ? Ask yourself what has brought you here to-night: 
and if you can answer it by saying, "I want to be saved to-night 
above everything else," then I have a message for you: And, God 
helping me, I will try to make it so plain that you can all understand 
it. 

The first illustration I want to call your attention to is the ark . 
Now I have no doubt but you all understand that story as well as I 
do. Perhaps there is not a child here but understands all about that 
ark; how Noah built it, and how it was finished. And God invited 
Noah to come in : " Come thou and all thy house into the ark." 
There was one moment Noah was outside of that ark, the next mo- 
ment he was in. There is instant salvation. One moment he was 
exposed to the judgment that was coming upon the earth ; the next 
moment he was in the ark. He had only to cross over the threshold 
and go in. "When God called him in, he had not to build the ark; 
that was already done. And if God calls you, my friends, the ark is 
already finished. One hundred and twenty years before, God had 



104 INSTANT SALTATION. 

told Noah to build the ark; now it was done, and he was called in. 
God has provided an ark. We read in the 32nd chapter of Isaiah, 
at the 2nd verse: "And a man shall be as a hiding-place." The 
Lord Jesus Christ is the refuge for every poor sinner ; and the mo- 
ment the sinner steps out into Christ, that moment he is saved. I 
remember, when at Manchester, at one of our inquiry- meetings, 
while I was talking, a man came up. I thought when I first looked 
at him he was skeptical, and had come to criticise the meeting, and 
see what was going on. At last I noticed tears trickling down his 
cheeks. I asked him if he was interested. He said, "Yes; I want 
to be saved." I said, " Thank God for that." I turned my atten- 
tion to that man, and I used one illustration. He said, " I want to 
feel I am saved." I said: " God does not tell you to feel, you do 
not want to make a god of your feelings. It is not your feeling 
that is going to save you." " But," said he, " if a man is saved, 
won't he know it." "Yes, if he comes into the ark." I asked him 
if it was Noah's feeling that saved him, or the ark. He said: " I 
understand it now. I have to go on board the train to-night. I see 
it, I see it." He shook my hand and we parted. Some time after, I 
was coming out of the Free Trade Hall, and this man touched me 
on the shoulder and. asked me if I remembered the illustration of 
the ark. He said he had peace ever since. He said, " It was the 
ark that saved me." He was one of the best workers we had in 
Manchester. Just trust the ark. Don't trust in anything you can 
do. 

Salvation is outside of yourself : may the Lord open your eyes to 
see it. Your sins may keep you out of Heaven; but they cannot 
keep you from Christ, because Christ will take them out of the way. 
The ark was built for sinners. If you were not a sinner, you would 
not need to come in. Death is the penalty of sin; and if a man 
could live in the world without committing sin, without transgress- 
ing the law, he would not die. That man never lived, except the 
Lord Jesus Christ; and he took upon him our sins and died for us. 
Your sins may keep you out of heaven; but they cannot keep you 
from Christ, if you want to come. Take the illustration we had this 
afternoon about Lot. There was one minute Lot was in Sodom; 
another minute, and he had crossed over the line and went out of 
Sodom. God said: "Make haste, escape for thy life. Flee to yon 
mountain." It was Lot's going out of Sodom that saved him: that 
was instant salvation. One moment he was in Sodom; the next mo- 
ment he had gone out. He saved his life by obeying God. It was 
the going out of Sodom that saved him. We want to escape- for 
our lives; we want to escape out of Sodom. 

The cry that comes from Jehovah now is: "Escape to Mount Cal- 
vary, and get under the shelter of the cross ; and you are safe for 
time and eternity." Read the 13th verse of the 12th chapter of Ex* 



INSTANT SALVATION. 105 

odus. "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses 
where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and 
the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the 
land of Egypt." There was one moment when there was no blood 
on the door-post. It was the blood that sheltered them that 
memorable night, when death came and smote the first-born in Egypt. 
"When I see the blood, I will pass over you." It was not anything 
they could say or do that would save them, except to be sheltered 
behind the blood. There was a moment when the blood was not on 
the door; and there was another moment when they took up the 
hyssop and sprinkled it on the door. One second it was not there; 
another second, and it was there. That blood is the countersign. 
Do not go on with the delusion that your prayers and cries for mercy 
in the dying hour are going to be the key to open heaven. 

Some people say: *'God is a God of mercy; I know he will be 
merciful and let me in." He win*, if you have washed in the blood 
of the Lamb; if you have turned to Christ and been born again* 
Some say, when they leave this world they will knock at the door 
of mercy, and mercy will let them in. You need not call for mercy 
then. Mercy has been offered for eighteen hundred years. Mercy 
is here. You mast meet mercy here, doing office work. If you find 
grace and Christ here, you will find an entrance into heaven. I met 
a man who had a dream. He dreamed he was taken by the angels 
to the gates of that City which is of pure gold; and they would not 
let him in. He represented that he had been a Sabbath-school su- 
perintendent; but they did not know him. Then he represented 
how much good he had done in the world; but they did not know 
him. Another man came and. said he had been an elder in the 
church; they did not know him. Another came and spoke of his 
good works; they did not know him. At last came one crying^ 
"Blood! blood! blood!" and the gates flew wide open and he en- 
tered in. The man awoke, and thought that if he entered that city 
he must be washed in the blood of the Lamb. The blood must be 
the token. There is nothing to prevent you from accepting this pre- 
cious blood this very night and hour. 

Some people say, "You must strive to enter in." Yes; but who 
is the striving with?^ Is it with the gate-keeper? Is it that God 
has the gate locked and barred, and says you cannot come in until 
you have prayed so long and wrestled so long? Does not the Scrip- 
ture say the gate is open, and God say, " Come in, come in, come in"? 
Was it not the turning point in the life of the prodigal son when he 
said, "I will arise and go to my father"? Were not his father's arms 
open and ready to receive him? Did you ever hear of a poor sinner 
coming to Christ that he did not receive him with joy and gladness? 
Do not think the way is hard. God has made it so easy that a way- 
faring man, though a fool, cannot err therein. 



106 INSTANT SALTATION. 

God told Joshua, in the Promised Land, to make six cities of ref- 
uge — three on each side of Jordan — and set them on hills where they 
could be seen. The gates were to be kept open day and night. The 
chief men and magistrates were to keep the way clear; every stum- 
bling-block was to be taken up out of the way; the bridges were to 
be kept in repair. He was to put up sign posts, upon which were 
to be written in letters of red, "Cities of Refuge;" and a hand was 
to be painted upon them, which was to point to these cities of refuge, 
so that any one who could not read could see the hand and escape 
for his life. The law was that if one man killed another accidental- 
ly, the next relative of the man killed should avenge his kinsman; 
and the only hope for that man was to get into one of these cities of 
refuge. They were placed on each side of Jordan, so that there 
should be no obstacle in the way to prevent a fugitive from reaching 
them. Suppose I am in the woods, and my axe slips out of my hand 
and kills the man working with me. I know his brother will be on 
my track, if he finds me out; so I start and run as fast as I can for 
the city of refuge. I soon hear the footsteps of that brother coming 
after me. I leap over the bridges. I do not stop to loiter by the 
way. If any man comes along and asks me a question, I do not stop 
to talk. There is no time to discuss which is the best denomination. 
I want to save my life. The avenger is behind me; he has a double- 
edged sword bearing down upon me. I say, Tf I can only get 
through that gate I will save my life. Away I go. A watchman 
standing on the walls of the city sees me coming. The news spreads 
through the city, " There is a poor fugitive coming." The inhabi- 
tants stand on the walls; they see the avenger; he is bearing down 
upon me. They cry: "Run, run for, your life, run." At last I go 
leaping through the gates of that city. One moment outside, the 
next moment in. He may come now with his double-edged sword; 
but he cannot touch me. One moment he was ready to hew me 
down; the next I was safe. I am saved. It is not my feelings that 
save me. I am inside the walls! 

Did you ever stop to think that death is on your track? Did 
you ever stop to think how near he may be to you? Many a man 
who has been within these walls since we have been here has already 
gone; and in an audience of ten thousand, it is not out of the way to 
think that some one of us will be gone a week hence. A young man 
from one of the hotels here came to hear my lecture on the prophet 
Daniel. On Wednesday night he was talking about the lecture; on 
Thursday morning he was found dead in his bed. We shall see him 
no more. I hope he was in the City of Refuge. If he was, he was 
safe for time and for eternity. Death is on your track and mine. If 
we are in the City of Refuge we are safe. God has provided a City 
of Refuge for every one; that is, Christ himself. You may find 
shelter in that cleft rock, and be safe for time and eternity. Oh, may 



INSTANT SALVATION. 107 

God open your eyes and show you the importance of escaping for 
your life! You are not to think, because you feel this or feel that 
you will be saved. You must obey God. You shall not perish if 
you obey God, and do what he tells you to do. 

Here is another illustration. A few years ago we had slavery in 
this country, and the black men were all the time looking towards 
the north star. They were trying to get their liberty, especially 
those in the Border States. If they crossed the Mississippi and 
Missouri rivers, they were not saved; for we had a fugitive slave 
law, under which their masters could take them again into slavery. 
They looked farther on. They knew there was a flag no slave could 
live under; that when they were under that flag they were free. They 
kept traveling toward Canada. They knew if they could get under 
the Union Jack that flag would protect them. No power under 
Heaven could take them back. As long as we are on the devil's 
territory he has a claim upon us, and he will take us captive; he 
will make us do as he wants us to do. Look at this poor slave; he 
has come up from Missouri. He has crossed the Mississippi river, 
and he must get through Michigan. He gets into the state, and 
there is a rumor that his old master is after him; so he goes with all 
his speed towards Canada. He says, " If I can only get over the 
line I will be a free man." The man is escaping, running for his 
freedom. The master and his men are on fleet horses, pursuing after 
him. Away they go over the hedges and down through the valleys. 
Away he goes, panting, running as fast as he can go. At last he 
sees the Union Jack, and he says, "There is my home, if I can only 
cross the line." See him running. He gets within a rod of the line; 
but he is a slave yet. His master can take him into bondage again. 
Now if he can make those fifteen feet he will be a free man. At last 
he gets over the line; and he is free now, forever. That is instant 
salvation. What you want is to cross the line to-night. Just come 
under the flag of heaven, and you are free — no more slavery. You can- 
not be under the flag of heaven and serve the devil at the same time. 

Young man, make up your mind that by the grace of God you 
will cross that line to-night. Are you not willing to be saved now? 
The moment you make up your mind you will seek the Kingdom of 
God with all your heart, you will find it. 

I was walking down the streets of York one day when I was 
preaching in England, and I saw a red-coat; and, wishing to hear 
from him how the soldiers were enlisted in that country, I said to 
him: "You see, I am a foreigner, and I want to ask you how it is 
you enlist." I was after an illustration. " Well," he said, " I will 
tell you. I went to the recruiting office and said, ' 1 want to enlist 
in her Majesty's service; I want to become a soldier.' The officer 
put a shilling in my hand. The moment I had that I was a soldier." 
People say, "How is it you are a sinner to-night, and before you go 



108 INSTANT SALVATION. 

to sleep you are saved?" It is because you have received the En- 
glish shilling. That man was his own master, but he said, " I want 
to enlist in Queen Victoria's service;" and the moment he received 
that shilling he was no longer his own. By receiving it he became 
a soldier. I could not have a better illustration than that. Have 
you got tired of the service of sin and the devil? Do you want to 
change masters? Do you want to enlist in my Master's cause? If 
you do, receive him and enlist in his cause, and you are his for time 
and eternity. Is there any one here now who will receive him? 
Will you say, in the depth of your heart, " By the grace of God we 
will receive him." Is there one here who will receive him? Is there 
one solitary one here in this vast assembly who will take him? [A 
voice, "Yes, I will."] Is there another? Thank God for that! 
[Another, "I will."] I remember asking that question in Manches- 
ter, and a man burst into tears and said, " I want to." I said, " You 
must make up your mind you will." In a few minutes he cried out, 
"I will." 1 said "Is there another?" A little voice came down from 
the third gallery. It sounded like the voice of an angel, and in her 
childish manner she said, " I will." Is there not some little child 
here to-night who will receive Jesus? He wants you. Don't you 
want to take him? Will you receive him to-night? Will you be 
followers of the Lamb to-night? Will you take the gift to-night? 
If it is a gift, it is instantaneous. [A lady rose and said, "I will."] 
I do not see why you should not receive him here to-night. 

I do not know any better illustration of receiving Christ than mat- 
rimony. Jeremiah, in speaking of backsliders, says: "Turn, O 
backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you." 
Christ represents himself as the bridegroom and the Church as the 
bride. The apostle Paul writes, "What the husband is to the wife 
Christ is to the Church." In Revelation we read: " Blessed are they 
which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." We can- 
not have a better illustration. Here is a lady to whom a man has 
offered himself in marriage; she must receive or reject the offer. I 
want to get a bride for my Master. I want to see if some one here 
will be a spouse. " He came unto his own, and his own received him 
not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God." To them that received him. Cannot you 
receive him to-night? Is there not some one here who wants to be- 
come a spouse to Christ to-night? he wants you. Is it not a won- 
derful thing that the Prince of Glory should come from heaven and 
offer himself to poor sinners like us? Will not you have him in 
your heart? Young man, will not you have him? Oh, I would to 
God every soul in this building out of Christ would receive him now! 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." You 
have not to wait another moment. "Ah," says one, "I imagine I 
have to work for him." Your works will go for nought. " Jesus 



INSTANT SALVATION. 109 

answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye be- 
lieve on him whom he hath sent." Another verse says: "But to him 
that worketh not, but belie veth on him that justifieth the ungodly, 
his faith is counted for righteousness." 

When the Ville de Havre was sinking they took out all the pas- 
sengers, and then tried to save the vessel, but it was doomed to go 
down. At last they gave up the work as hopeless. Another boat 
came along-side, and the officers and crew were urged to leave the 
sinking ship, and get into this vessel. They did, and were all 
brought ashore. This world is a wrecked vessel; every moment it 
is sinking. Up comes a life-boat. The captain shouts, " Moody, 
jump into the life-boat." I jump. One moment I am here; the 
next moment I am in the life-boat. It is the life-boat that saves 
me. 

Christ is the life-boat; he comes to every perishing soul. He says: 
"Trust me; I will carry you in my arms to the kingdom of God." 
Cannot you trust him to-night, sinner? That is the question. Pause 
a moment, and think what you will do. Will you be saved to-night; 
or will you spurn this offer of mercy? I like to have people stop 
and think. The question is: What are you going to do? Will you 
be saved? Young lady, what are you going to do to-night with 
Christ? Young man, what will you do with him? He is the life- 
boat for you and me. Shall this blessed Week of Prayer close, and 
leave you out of the ark? What a week it has been. Perhaps 
more prayer has been offered in America this week, than in any 
other week in the history of the country. Many hearts have gone 
up in prayer for your salvation. Are you going to let this meeting 
close, and leave you without hope? What are you going to do? I 
do not know what more I can say; I do not know as I can make it 
any plainer. Perhaps I had better stop here. Will you not have 
him to-night? Will you not trust him to-night for salvation? Just 
think. 

While the voice of man is hushed, pause and see if you will not 
hear the voice of God speaking to you; if you will not hear the still, 
small voice of Jesus calling you to himself. Hark ! What does he say: 
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your soul." 
Don't you want rest? you will find it in Christ. " My yoke is easy 
and my burden is light." Hear the blessed words of Jesus to-night, 
and may they sink down deep into your soul. May they prevent you 
going out of this hall to-night unsaved. Do not you realize that God 
is in this meeting to-night? Do not you feel that you are in the 
atmosphere of prayer? 

Jesus is in our assembly to-night; and now while he is here, while 
he is calling you to himself, will you not come to the ark? " Behold 



110 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

I stand at the door and knock." Does a heart throb? That is Christ 
knocking. " I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear my 
voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with 
him, and he with me." Will you let him in to-night, dear friends? 
"Will you unlock the door of your heart? Pull back those rusty 
bolts and say, " Welcome, thrice welcome into this heart." May 
God help you this night to be wise for eternity, and receive Jesus 
Christ as your Savior. Bow your heads in silent prayer, and ask 
the Lord what he will have you to do. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 

"I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and hefore thee." Luke 15: 18. 

We have for our subject to-night "The Prodigal Son." Perhaps 
there is not any portion of Scripture that this audience is so familiar 
with as this fifteenth chapter of Luke. These boys down here in 
the audience can tell the story as well as I can. All the Sabbath- 
school children know this chapter as well as I do. In the second 
verse we are told why Christ described this beautiful picture. The 
Pharisees and scribes were murmuring, and they said, "This man 
receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." They told the truth for 
once. An angel from heaven could not have told the truth plainer 
than they did when they said, "This man receiveth sinners, and eat- 
eth with them." That is what he came into the world for. And 
while they were complaining, he went on and gave us three parables: 
the parable of the lost sheep; the lost piece of money; and the lost 
son. 

This young man, the prodigal son, started wrong — that was the 
trouble with him. He was like hundreds and thousands of young 
men in our cities to-day, who have got a false idea of life: and when 
a man has a false idea of life, it is very hard for his father or mother 
or any of his friends to do anything with him. I do not know where 
his mother was. Perhaps he had sent her to the grave with a broken 
heart. The Lord did not speak of his mother; if she had been liv- 
ing, he would have referred to her. The father is to be censured; 
we cannot help but blame the father. When the son said, " Father, 
divide, and give me my portion," the father should have said: "You 
show a bad spirit. I will let you go without your portion." A great 



THE PRODIGAL SON. Ill 

many fathers make that mistake now. I do not think the father 
could have done a greater unkindness to the boy than to give him 
his goods and money, and let him go. It showed a contemptible 
spirit in the boy when he came to his father and said, "Divide: give 
me my portion and let me go." He wanted to go away from his 
father's prayers and influence, and get into a foreign land, where he 
could go on as he pleased, where he could run riot and plunge into 
all kinds of sin, and where there was no restraint. And that indul- 
gent father gratified his wish, and divided his goods with him. And 
not many days after he went around to his old companions and bade 
them all good-bye, and went off to a foreign country, perhaps to 
Egypt. While he was there his family must have heard from him, 
because the eldest brother said: "This brother hath spent all with 
harlots, and thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." 

Undoubtedly, the first time they heard from him they heard bad 
news. T can see him going away very proud: you might as well 
talk to an iron post as to talk to him now. He is full of conceit and 
false ideas. He is going to get on without his father or any help from 
his friends; he will have no trouble, in his own mind. But the very 
first thing we hear of him is, he is in bad company. I never knew 
a young man who treated his father unkindly but would go right off 
into bad company. He got into that far country, and now we hear 
of him going on in all kinds of vice. Undoubtedly, if they had the- 
atres in those days, and I do not doubt but they had, he would be in 
the theatre every night in the week. We would find him in the bil- 
liard hall and the drinking saloon. We do find him in the ways of 
those whose feet take hold on hell. He was a popular young man; 
he had plenty of money, and his money was popular. He was a 
grand companion for the young men in that far country; they liked 
his society. I do not know how long he had been there; but I do 
not suppose it was more than five years, and perhaps not more than 
three years. It does not take long for a young man to go to ruin 
when he gets in among thieves and harlots: that is about the quick- 
est way down to hell. At last his money is gone, and now his friends 
begin to drop off, one after another. He is not quite so popular as 
he was when he had plenty of money. He is getting a little shabby; 
his clothes are not so good as they were. He had a good wardrobe ; 
but now he goes to the pawn-shop, and he pawns his overcoat. I 
have seen a good many such young men in Philadelphia. I think 
his overcoat is gone for strong drink; and one thing after another 
soon goes. He might have had some gift which his mother gave him 
when she was dying, and at last that goes; and yet he does not come 
to himself. 

The very first thing he did do that I like to commend was, that he 
joined himself to a citizen of that country to find some work to do. 
That is the noblest thing he did. There is some hope for a man when 



112 . THE PRODIGAL SON". 

lie is willing to go to work. I have more hope for the gambler, the 
harlot, the drunkard, and for any class of people, than I have for a 
lazy man. I never knew a lazy man to be converted yet. The pro- 
digal started to get some work to do, even if it was to feed swine. 
That is the lowest occupation a Jew could be engaged in. He joined, 
himself to a citizen of that country and fed swine; and he would have 
eaten the husks if he could have got them. No man gave him even 
husks. This wealthy man's son, who was brought up amid good in- 
fluences and surroundings, is now living in that foreign country like 
a man who had never seen a decent home. 

Now, just for a moment think what that man lost in all these 
years. He lost his home; he had no home. His friends, when he 
had money, might have invited him around to their homes; but it is no 
home for him. There was no loving home. There is not a prodigal 
upon the face of the earth but has lost his home. You may live in a 
gilded palace; but if God is not there, it is no home. If your con- 
science is lashing you, it is no home. He lost his food; his father's 
table did not go to that country. He would have fed on the husks 
that the swine did eat; but no one gave unto him. This world can- 
not satisfy the soul. Then he lost his testimony. I can imagine some 
of the young men of that country saw him among the swine, 
feeding them and taking the place of a shepherd's dog among them; 
and they said: "Look at that poor wretched young man, with no 
shoes on his feet, and with such shabby garments." They looked at 
him and called him a beggar, and pointed the finger of scorn at him. 
He said: "You need not call me a beggar; my father is a wealthy 
man." They said, "Your father a wealthy man?" "Yes." "You 
look like a wealthy man's son." There was not a man believed him, 
when he said he was a wealthy man's son. His testimony was gone; 
no one would believe him. So when a man goes in the service of 
the devil, he sinks lower and lower; and it is not long before every- 
one loses confidence in him. One sin leads on to another. His tes- 
timony is gone. But there is one thing he did not lose, and if there 
is a poor backslider here to-night, there is one thing you have not 
lost. That young man never lost his father's love. I can imagine 
one of his father's neighbors has met him in that place, and says to 
him: "My boy, I have just come from your home; your father wants 
you to go home." I can imagine the young man said: "Did my father 
speak of me? I thought he had forgotten me." "Why," says the 
man, "he don't think of anything else; he thinks of you day and 
night. Do you think he has forgotten you? No, never. He cannot 
forget you; he loves you too well for that." He didn't yet come to 
himself; there he is. 

But one day, I can see him, he gets a-thinking. It is a good thing 
to stop and think. I wish we could get some of the men in Phila- 
deH^n + o think whore thev aro, and what is going to be the end of 



THE PKODIGAL SON. 113 

it. He begins to think that over those blue hills there is a home; 
and there is a father in that home, who loves him still. As the 
Scripture puts it, " He came to himself." It is a grand thing to see 
a man coming to himself. When he began to come to himself, then 
it was there was hope for him. It teaches us clearly that all these 
years he had been out of his mind. Very likely he thought Chris- 
tians were out of their minds. There is not a drunkard, harlot, thief, 
or gambler, but thinks Christians are mad; and they call us fanatics. 
But Solomon says: "Madness is in their heart while they live, and 
after that they go to the dead." 

The prodigal, perhaps, sends word: "I have spent all my money. 
I wish you would send me some money." The father says: " I will 
not give him any more money; for, if I do, he will go on with his 
riotous living." Some men think God does not love them, because 
he does not answer their prayers while they are living in sin. The 
father loved the boy too well to send him any money. There was a 
mother came to me, not long ago, with a prodigal boy; and she 
wanted me to talk and pray with him. I said: "You have come to 
the wrong person; why don't you take him to Christ?" She said 
she had. I found this boy was the son of a wealthy father; and he 
had been brought up to do nothing, and he had had all the money he 
wanted. I said: "This boy has the false idea that all he has got to 
do is, to write to his father for money." I said: "You make a great 
mistake. Do you think the prodigal son would have come home if 
his father had given him all the money he wanted? He never would 
have come home if he had not got to the end of his rope." 

When he came to himself, he said: "I will perish here. I will 
arise and go to my father." And that was the turning point in that 
young man's life. There is always hope for a man when he begins 
to think. I wish you would bear in mind that, if you are willing to 
own your sin, and own that you have wandered from God, God is 
willing to receive you. The very moment you are willing to come, 
that moment God is willing and ready to receive you. He delights 
in forgiveness. I do not care how vile you have been, if you are 
willing to come back, God is willing and ready to receive you. The 
turning point was when he came to himself, and said: " How many 
hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and 
I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and say unto 
him, ' Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee.' " I can 
imagine the angels hovering over him as he said this; and an angel 
wings his way to heaven and says, "Ring the bells of heaven!" 
" There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." He rises 
like a man; his mind is made up. He has his heart set upon one 
thing, " I am going home." It did not take long, after he had made 
up his mind, to go; he had not many friends to go and bid good-bye. 
They had got all he had in that country, and now there was no one 
8 



114 THE PRODIGAL SOX. 

there to love and pity him ; there was no one there to care for him. But 
he knew there was one solitary man that would love him, if any one 
would on earth; and that man was his father. There is a God in 
heaven who will love you and pity you, and have mercy on you, if 
you will come to him. There may be a hiss go up. The Pharisees 
may look down with contempt upon you; they may pass you on the 
street and not speak to you; but there is a God who takes care of 
you, and who is willing to blot out your sin, if you are willing to 
come to him. The blessed Master brought out this parable to teach 
the lesson of the Father's love. 

There was a young man went off to California, and he left a kind,, 
praying father. He went to the Pacific coast; and the first letter 
to his father brought the tidings that he was in bad company. The 
next letter told he had gone on from bad to worse; and every time 
he heard from that dear boy he heard how he was going on in sin. 
At last one of the neighbors was going out to California, and the 
father said to him: " When you get there hunt up my boy, and tell 
him one thing — that his father loves him still. Tell him my love is 
unchanged. Tell him I never loved him more than I do at the pres- 
ent time; and if he will come home, I will forgive him all." The 
man, when he got to California, had hard work to find the boy; but 
one night, past midnight, he found him in one of the lowest dens in 
California. He got him out, and he said to him: "1 have news 
from home for you. I have come from New England, and just be- 
fore I left I met your father; and he told me, if I found you, to tell 
you that he loved you as much as ever, and he wants you to come 
home." The young prodigal said: "Did my father tell you to tell 
me he loved me still? I do not understand that." " But," says the 
man, " it is true." That broke the man's heart, and he started back 
to his father. I bring the message to you that God loves you stilL 
I say to every sinner in Philadelphia, I do not care how vile you 
are in the sight of your fellowmen, I want to tell you upon the 
authority of God's word, that the Lord Jesus loves you, and loves 
you still. 

I see this prodigal son: he starts for home, and he has a hard jour- 
ney of it; he is almost starved. There has been a famine in that 
land; perhaps the famine struck that land to bring that man back to 
his father's house. Many a trouble comes upon us to bring us to 
God. He is coming along over the highway, and night comes 
on; he sleeps. Day after day he travels on. He has no fears of 
thieves troubling him, for he had squandered all in that foreign land. 
As he crosses the line that brings him into his native country, his 
heart must have beat quicker and quicker. This thought might have 
come to him : " Perhaps my father is dead, and then no one will love 
me. It may be my father will not receive and forgive me." He 
might have thought that, as his father had refused to give him money,. 



THE PEODIGAL SON. 115 

he would not receive him. Still he comes on. I see him coming in 
sight of that old homestead. Perhaps some of you understand his 
feelings. Perhaps some of you have been away for years, and then, 
when you came back to the old homestead, the tears would come 
trickling down your cheeks as you remembered the first morning- 
when you left home. "When a young man leaves home, the thought 
will come across him that he may never return. This boy has been 
away for years. He is coming home; he sees the playground. He 
is sick of that foreign country; he is sick of that devil's own coun- 
try; it has not satisfied him. I never saw a man who lived for the 
world satisfied yet. He has this thought: "I wonder if my father 
will let me come in. I will ask him to let me get in among the ser- 
vants." 

I can see the old man; he is up there on the flag-roof of the house. 
It is in the cool of the day; the sun is sinking down behind those Pal- 
estine hills. He is looking in the direction his boy went away years 
ago. How his heart has ached for him; how he has loved him. I 
can see the old man as he looks, and as he sees that boy coming 
back. He cannot recognize him by his dress; but love is keen to 
detect its object, and he can see it is his darling boy. He comes 
down those stairs, and he sweeps out past the servants, as if the 
spirit of youth had come back upon him. You can see his gray hairs, 
as he flies through the air and leaps over the highway. He runs and 
leaps for joy. The boy begins to speak, but the father will not hear 
him. He takes the boy's hand and says: "Bring out the best robe 
and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand. Bring out shoes and 
put on his feet, and kill the fatted calf ; and let us eat and be merry." 
I see the old man weeping tears of joy. In that home there is glad- 
ness. The boy is eating that sumptuous meal; he has not had as 
good a meal for many a year. It seems almost too good to be true. 
Picture the scene. While he is there he begins to weep; and the old 
man, who is weeping for joy, looks over to him and says, " What 
are you weeping for." The boy says: " Well, father, I was thinking 
it would be an awful thing if I should leave you again, and go into 
a foreign country." But if you sit down at God's feast, you will not 
want to go back into the devil's country again. 

Oh, my friends, to-night come home. God wants you; his heart 
is aching for you. I do not care what your past life has been. This 
night, upon the authority of God's Word, I proclaim salvation to 
every sinner. " This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." 
Every sinner has a false idea of God; he thinks God is not ready and 
willing to forgive him. He says it is not justice. But God wants 
to deal in mercy. If the old man had dealt in justice, he would 
have barred the door and said to his son, "You cannot come in my 
my house." That is not what fathers are doing. Their doors are 
not barred against their own children. Their doors are wide open, 



116 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

and they bid you come home. There is no father in Philadelphia 
who has as much love in his heart as God has for you. You may be 
black as hell; yet God stands ready and willing to receive you to 
his bosom, and to forgive you freely. 

Two weeks ago last Sunday, there was a poor, fallen woman came 
to this meeting; and I would to God we had more come in. I would 
like to see every fallen woman come to Jesus. I would like to 
preach to those twenty thousand fallen women there are in this city; 
I would like to tell them how Jesus would forgive them. The ser- 
mon did not touch this woman until I got to that part where I said, 
There was no sinner so vile but Jesus would receive that one; and 
it went like an arrow to her soul. She came to the inquiry-room, 
and made up her mind never to go back. In the course of forty- 
eight hours, she found her way to the feet of Jesus, and her heart 
went out with others. She thought of another; and thanks be to 
God, she is here to-night. There were two Christian ladies left this 
city this morning to see the mother; and when they came to her 
house, she was not going to let them in. She was sick, and did not 
want to receive any callers; but the thought came to her that per- 
haps they were bringing good news from her husband. When these 
two angels of light came in, they said they came to talk about her 
daughter Mary. The woman said: "My daughter; have you 
brought news of my child? Where is she? Oh, how my heart has 
ached for fifteen long years. Why did you not bring her with you?" 
They said, " We did not know as you would receive her." She 
said: "Oh, how my heart has been aching. Won't you bring her 
back to-morrow morning?" If the mother will receive that child, do 
you tell me God will not receive her? There is not a poor sinner 
here to-night God will not receive. 

William Dawson, the celebrated Yorkshire farmer, once said that 
there was no man so far gone in London that Christ would not re- 
ceive him. A young lady called on him and said: "I heard you say, 
there was no man so far gone in London that Christ would not re- 
ceive him. Did you mean it?" "Yes," he said. "Well," she says, 
"I found a man who said he was so bad that the Lord would not 
have anything to do with him. Will you go and see him?" He 
said, "I will be glad to go." She took him to a brick building, in a 
narrow street: and he was in the fifth story. She said, "You had bet- 
ter go in alone." He went in and found a young man lying in the 
garret, on an old straw bed. He found he was very sick; and he 
whispered in his ear some kind words, and wanted to call his friends. 
The dying man said, "You are mistaken in the person." "Why 
so?" said Mr. Dawson. "I have no friends on earth," said the dying 
man. It is hard indeed, for a man to serve the devil, and come 
down to no friends. "Well," said he, "you have a friend in Christ;" 
and he told him how Jesus loved and pitied him, and would 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 11? 

save him. He read different portions of Scripture, and prayed 
with the man. After praying with him a long time, the light 
of the gospel began to break into his dark soul, and his heart 
went out towards those whom he had injured. He said, " If 
my father would only forgive me I could die happy." "Who 
is your father?" He told him, and Mr.' Dawson said, "I will 
go and see him." "No," the sick man said; "he has cast me off." 
But William Dawson knew he would receive him, so he got his 
father's address and said, "I will go." He came to the west end of 
London, and rang the bell of the house where the father lived, A 
servant in livery came to the door, and Mr. Dawson asked if his 
master was in. The servant showed him in, and told him to wait a 
few minutes; presently the merchant came in. Mr. Dawson said to 
him, "You have a son by the name of Joseph." The merchant said: 
"No, sir; if you come to talk to me about that worthless vagabond, 
you shall leave the house; I have disinherited him." Mr. Dawson 
said: "He will not be your boy by night; but he will be as long as 
he lives." The man said, "Is my boy sick?" "Yes, he is dying. 
I do not ask you to help bury him, I will attend to that, but he wants 
you to forgive him, and then he will die in peace." The tears trick- 
led down the father's cheeks. Said he: "Does Joseph want me to 
forgive him? I would have forgiven him long ago if I had known 
that." In a few minutes he was in a carriage, and they went to the 
house where the boy was; and as they ascended the filthy stairs, he 
said: "Did you find my boy here? I would have taken him to my 
heart if I had known this." The boy cried, when his father came in: 
"Can you forgive me all my past sins?" The father came over to 
the boy and bent over him, and kissed him, and said: "I would have 
forgiven you long ago." And he said, "Let my servant put you in 
my carriage." The dying man said: "I am too sick; I can die 
happy now. I think God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven me." The 
prodigal told the father of the Savior's love; and then, his head lying 
upon his father's bosom, he breathed his last, and rose to heaven. 

If thy father or mother forsake you, the Lord Jesus Christ will not. 
Oh, may you press into the kingdom of heaven to-night, and while 
Mr. Sankey sings, " Oh, prodigal son, come home," I hope every 
one will come home. Oh, may hundreds come home while this is 
sung. Let us bow our heads while he sings it. 



CHRIST THE DELIVERER. 

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus 
Baith the Lord: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the 
terrible shall be delivered: fori will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I 
will save thy chil(lren. ,, — Isaiah 49: 24, 25. 

You find in these verses what Christ came to do. He did not 
come to preach elegant sermons: He came to the world to proclaim 
liberty to the captive. Every soul in this building is either under 
the power of the prince of this world and doing his bidding, or he is 
brought out of this old kingdom and is brought into the kingdom of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

There are only two classes in this world. You must be either for 
the Lord or against him. There may be some persons here who are 
not Christians, who are saying to themselves, " I am not under the 
power of Satan. I will do as I please. Satan has no power over 
me; I do as I please." If there is an unconverted person here who 
has that idea, I can tell him it is a false one. You cannot hold a 
more false impression than that. I can prove to you that it is false. 
Have you not some sins that trouble you? and have you not said, 
" I will try and break off that sin?" and have you not tried and tried, 
and failed every time? And could not you, if you were honest to- 
night, write " failure " over every attempt you have made to reform 
yourself ? Satan binds us — every one of us. If we have not been lib- 
erated by Christ, we are still under his power. Every one of us has 
some besetting sin; and Satan knows our weak point and holds us: 
and we have not the power to liberate ourselves. We cannot give 
ourselves liberty. A great many do not want to become Christians, 
because they do not want to give up their liberty, but the greatest 
slaves in the world are the slaves of the devil. They are under his 
power; they cannot do as they please; they have not the power to 
do as they please. When we had slavery in this country, if a slave 
had a wife that was a slave, all their children were born into slavery. 
Every one of us is born into slavery to Satan, by nature. In sin did 
my mother conceive me. We cannot talk about liberty until we 
know Christ. We see the old nature in children, even when but one 
year old. We see the child's will rises against its mother's will; 
there it is, under the very power of the evil one. How many young 
men in this assembly have tried to break off some of their habits 
that are taking them down to ruin, and sinking them lower and 
lower? They have tried to get the victory over them; but they 
118 



CHRIST THE DELIVERER. 119 

have failed. How many have been in the inquiry-room during these 
past weeks, and told us how they have tried to break off old lmbits 
and failed every time? They have said: "It is an awful hard thing 
to be a Christian. I have tried to serve God and failed." It is 
utterly impossible for you to serve God until you get liberty in 
Christ — until you get power over Satan. I do not know what your 
besetting sin is; but every man and woman in this assembly, out 
of Christ, has some besetting sin, and Satan holds you with that sin. 
He holds some by the power of strong drink; others by their tem- 
pers; and others by profanity. Satan does not care which way he 
takes you to hell, if he only gets you there at last. He has all men 
in his power who have not been liberated by Jesus Christ. Christ 
says, He came to proclaim liberty. That is his proclamation; and 
there is not a slave of the devil to-night but what may be set free. 
No one but Christ has the power to set the sinner free. That is why 
the Gospel is good news: it is good news because it proclaims lib- 
erty to the captive. 

In the days of Wilberforce, there was an effort made to get a bill 
through the British parliament to give liberty to the slaves held by 
their masters in those "West India islands belonging to Great Britain. 
Those poor fugitives were anxious to hear the decision of parliament 
upon that question. They could not telegraph over the water, as 
we can now; but they were watching for a vessel to come in. At 
last a vessel came in to one of those islands. The captain could not 
wait until he got on shore to proclaim the news of freedom ; but he 
shouted at the top of his voice, as loud as he could cry: "Free! free! 
free!" The people took up the cry, and it rung all through the is- 
land: "~Free! free! free!" They were no longer slaves — that was 
the proclamation. Jesus Christ comes from the throne of God, and 
he proclaims liberty to every slave of the devil. If there is one here 
in this assembly whom the devil holds in slavery, he can be free if he 
will only come to Christ. 

When I was returning from Europe in 1872, 1 met Governor Cur- 
tin on board the steamer coming back from Russia. I was much in- 
terested in the account he gave of the Emperor having liberated for- 
ty million serfs. We thought President Lincoln had done a great 
thing when he liberated our slaves; but it was far surpassed by the 
action of the Emperor of Russia. He called his imperial council to- 
gether, to endeavor to devise some way by which liberty could be 
given to these serfs. They assembled, and consulted together for six 
long months; and at last, one night, they sent in word to the Em- 
peror that it would not be expedient to liberate them — that it was 
not best to liberate them. That night the Emperor went to the 
Greek church and partook of the sacrament. The next morning he 
ordered his guards up with their guns; they guarded the palace, and 
planted their cannon for a protection. At midday a ukase was sent 



120 CHRIST THE DELIVERER. 

forth by the Emperor, proclaiming liberty to forty million serfs. 
They were made free. That is the proclamation I bring you to- 
night, and what you want to-night is just to believe the proclama- 
tion. It is not bad news; it is good news. 

During our war, a number of our men were taken prisoners by the 
Southern army. These prisoners were very anxious to be released; 
they waited anxiously to hear the news that prisoners were to be ex- 
changed. At one prison nine hundred men were confined. Word 
was brought to them one day that every man with the rank of cap- 
tain was to be taken to the commanding officer's office. The prison- 
ers thought that these captains were to be sent home. Then every 
colonel wished he was a captain. He would like to come down in 
the ranks; and every lieutenant wished he was higher up.' They were 
all congratulating these captains, for they thought they were going 
back to their wives and mothers, and they had been suffering in that 
prison for a long time. They were taken to the commanding offi- 
cer's office; they were all silent; all of them expected to be paroled 
out. The commanding officer said: "I have painful news to tell. 
I am ordered to select two of you for immediate execution." The 
feeling that came over that company was something awful. The 
officers proceeded to put the names of these captains into a hat; one 
of them then put his hand into the hat, and brought out the names 
of two men. He read the names he had drawn — they were Sayer 
and Flin. The hair of one of these men turned gray during the next 
night. Our government heard what was • going on, and they sent 
this word to Richmond: "You take the lives of those men, and we 
will take the life of the nephew of General Lee." All at once news 
came to these two captains, "You are going to be saved." Do you 
think that was not good news to them? Now, you know you are 
under the sentence of death. We are all condemned to die? the 
sentence is already out against us. And now comes liberty for every 
poor captive that wants it. If you want liberty, this night you can 
have it. 

I will give you another illustration. We will look into Libby 
prison and see those one thousand men there, some of them dying- 
for want of care. The news comes to them: " General Lee has been 
defeated, and has been driven in from his outer works." What news 
it must have been to those poor men. By and by they receive other 
news; they hear that Richmond has been taken. How jubilant they 
are! By and by they can hear our Union soldiers coming down the 
streets of Richmond; they can hear the band playing the tune of 
" The Star Spangled Banner." Soon they throw open the prison 
doors, and the captives are free. I came to-night to proclaim liberty 
to the captive. If Satan has you bound to-night by some terrible 
sin, the Son of God will set you free. He has the keys of heaven 
and hell. He will deliver you this night, if you will let him. 



CHRIST TIIE DELIVERER. 121 

A parable was told by Mr. Spurgeon of a tyrant who ordered one 
of his subjects, a blacksmith, into his presence, and said to him: 
" Make a chain of a certain length, and bring it to me on a certain 
day." The blacksmith returned on a certain day, with the chain of 
a certain length. The tyrant said: "Make it twice as long and 
bring it to me." The blacksmith made it, and brought it to him. 
The tyrant said again: "Make it twice the length, and bring it to- 
me." The third time the man made the chain twice its former 
length, and brought it back. The tyrant then said to his officers: 
" Take that chain, and bind that man hand and foot." That is what 
the devil is going to do with you. He is making you forge your 
own chain. What you want to-night is to become free. I do not 
care how dark the sin may be, you can be free. 

There is no class of sinners in Philadelphia but is represented in 
this Bible. One man says: "I am a thief; and if I am converted,. 
I will have to make restitution." It is the best thing you can do- 
Some may say: "I have not the power to make restitution; I have 
squandered the money." Then go and confess it, and the man whom- 
you have wronged will have compassion on you. You may say, " I 
am afraid he will put me in prison." I never knew a man but had 
mercy on the man that confessed to him that he had wronged him, 
and asked his forgiveness. A minister told me of a man whose con- 
science was aroused under the sermon, and he said to the minister r 
"I am a clerk in such a store, and I have stolen five hundred dollars. 
I want to become a Christian; but that is standing in my way, and 
staring me in the face. I have had no peace of mind for a long time. 
I have not got the money, and I cannot make restitution." Says 
the minister: "Why don't you go to your employer and tell him?" 
The young man said, " He will put me in prison." The minister 
said: "I would make a clean breast of it. Go to him and tell him 
all about it. It is better for you to do right than to do wrong. You 
have done wrong; don't conceal it and you will get liberty." The 
minister could not get the young man to consent to go. At last he 
said: "I will go and talk with your employer, if you will allow me." 
The young man gave him permission. He went to the counting- 
room of the young man's employer, and told him all about it, and 
said: "I have faith to believe that man is reformed, and if you will 
forgive him you will find him a good clerk." The merchant said, "I 
will not speak to him about it." He did not discharge him; he kept 
him in his old place,- and he turned out to be the best man in the 
place. Many a man thinks he cannot get free because he is bound 
in that way. The Lord Jesus Christ will give you victory. If you 
will confess your sin, he will give you victory. That is what he 
came to do: "to proclaim liberty to the captive." As long as a man 
is living in sin, there is no liberty; but the moment you come to 



122 CHRIST THE DELIVERER. 

Jesus Christ and confess to him, he will sweep your sins out of the 
way, and the clear light of Calvary will burst across your path. 

How many men are so guilty that they cannot look in your eye; 
and yet these men talk about liberty, and do not want to become 
Christians because they do not want to give up liberty. You never 
will know what true liberty is until you come to Christ. If you con- 
fess your sins, Christ will give you pure liberty; and peace and joy 
will flow over your soul like a river. Look over the list of those 
who have been saved, as recorded in the Bible; and see how many 
have been saved when they came to the Lord and confessed their sins. 
When you confess your sins, the Lord is ready to forgive you. If 
there is a sin-sick soul here to-night, if you will be honest and go and 
confess your sin, he will take it away, and bring your soul out of 
that dark prison it is in. I would much rather have my body in 
prison than my soul. It is better to have the soul safe with God and 
have the body in prison, than to have the soul in prison and the body 
under the power of the devil. Look at poor Barabbas in prison in 
Jerusalem. He is counting the hours when he will be led out to 
execution. He has had his trial and been found guilty. The laws 
have condemned him to die the death of the cross; the day is set for 
his execution; the hour will soon come. I can imagine the night 
before the day appointed for his execution he did not sleep; I can 
imagine he did not eat anything; I see him trembling from head to 
foot, because he is going to meet God. Bear in mind that the time 
may be very short to some of us. A man who was here last night 
said to a friend, " I am coming to-morrow into the inquiry-room." 
He fell dead twenty minutes before three o'clock this afternoon. 
Christ has proclaimed liberty to every captive. Poor Barabbas; he 
knows his hour is coming; perhaps he is counting the minutes. He 
says, " So many minutes, and I will be gone." They had a man exe- 
cuted a few years ago in Chicago, and they put up the scaffold in the 
jail. It troubled him very much to hear them putting up the scaf- 
fold, because it brought the thought to him that he was to be led out 
and executed. Poor Barabbas might have heard the carpenters 
working on the cross, and he might have said, "In a few hours I am 
to be led out." The great iron door of the prison swung back and 
the executioner says to him, " Barabbas, you are free." Barabbas 
says, "What! Free!" "Yes, you can go to your wife and children." 
"What does it mean? I free! My God! What does it mean? I have 
not to die?" The executioner says, "The people have chosen Jesus 
of Nazareth to die." That is substitution. Barabbas was the man 
that ought to die; his hand was trickling with the blood of his fellow 
men. Jesus came to set the captive free. Every man that has com- 
mitted sin is a lawful captive. " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." 
Here is Christ dying in the place of Barabbas; he has gone upon 
high; he loves and intercedes for you; he has power to proclaim lib- 



CHRIST THE DELIVERER. 123 

erty to <every poor bondman upon the earth. He went to the temple, 
one day, and there was a poor woman there who had been bound by 
Satan for eighteen years. There she was, doubled up. Satan had 
bound her physically, as well as binding her soul. Christ spoke a 
word and proclaimed her free. He has power. If your soul is so 
dwarfed on account of sin, and so vile and polluted, if you come to 
Jesus he will make you perfectly whole. 

Am I talking to a man here to-night who has some besetting sin 
and wants to get rid of it? Is there a man here who has a bad tem- 
per? Christ came to deliver us from these bad tempers. That is 
what he will do if you ask him. I once knew a woman who had 
such a bad temper that she could not keep any servant girl. No 
servant girl would live in the house with her, and she was disgusted 
with herself. She tried to get rid of her temper, but she could not 
do it. She said there was no chance of her being a Christian, as she 
could not keep her temper. A Christian lady said to her: " Why not 
let Jesus keep that temper for you?" She said, "I have never 
thought of that." If you commit your temper to Jesus, he will keep 
it for you; that is what he came for. The Christian lady asked this 
lady to trust Christ to keep her temper. God used that as the arrow 
to her soul, and she went home with her heart leaping for joy. She 
said, " I will trust him to keep my temper." When she arrived home 
she found the servant girl doing something she had told her never 
to do; the servant was surprised to see her, and dropped something 
and spoiled it. The old temper came up, but she said nothing to 
the servant. She went into the parlor and said, " Jesus, keep my 
temper for me." She came out and spoke to the servant kindly, and 
the servant broke down through her kindness. Christ has kept her 
temper all through these years. 

Another man says: " I am guilty of the terrible sin of blasphemy. 
I curse my wife and children. Many a time I have said: 'I will not 
take the name of the Lord in vain; I will stop swearing.'" He has 
said that a thousand times. Now, have you not learned the lesson 
that you cannot deliver yourself — that Satan has you bound? If you 
come to Christ, he will give you power to overcome that, and every 
-other besetting sin. 

Here is another man who says: "That is not my trouble. My sin 
is selfishness; I am so supremely selfish, it is self in all my plans. I 
will work only for myself; I will talk for myself; I will do every- 
thing from the standpoint of self." If you receive Jesus Christ, you 
will love him more than you will love yourself. He will be dearer 
to you than yourself. I pity the man who is living only for himself; 
he is but little higher than the ox. When a man lives for himself, 
there is nothing heavenly in him. We want to get outside of our- 
selves, and live for others. Christ will deliver us from that sin — for 
it is a sin. 



124 CHRIST THE DELIVERER. 

Here is another man says: "I am bound by a sin; I wish I could 
get the victory over it. I am bound hand and foot; Satan has me 
bound." I need not mention what that sin is. Many of you know 
the sin you are bound by. If it is .not one thing, it is another. Satan 
holds every man bound in his kingdom with some sin — some beset- 
ting sin. But let me tell you, all are the same with the Lord Jesus 
Christ. He has power to redeem to the uttermost; and there is no 
one so bound by any sin but Christ will give him the victory. The 
Lord sent him to proclaim liberty to the captive. 

Look at him in the temple. A woman was taken in adultery, and 
was dragged into his presence. He said he did not come to condemn 
the world. The Law condemns: Grace does not condemn. The 
people were going to put a question to him, which they thought he 
could not answer. They said: "The Law says, stone this woman to 
death. What do you say, Jesus?" He stooped and wrote on the 
ground, as though he heard them not. They continued asking him. 
Then he says: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast 
a stone at her." Then he wrote again on the ground. Her accusers, 
being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, be- 
ginning at the eldest, even unto the last. Jesus then looked up, and 
he turned to the poor fallen woman that had been bound by Satan 
many years, and said: "Where are thy accusers? Is there none to 
condemn thee?" And she said: "No man, Lord." And Jesus said 
unto her: "Neither do I condemn thee: Go, and sin no more." He 
sent her out with her heart full of joy; he set that poor captive free. 
If there be one here to-night that is guilty of adultery, the Lord 
Jesus Christ will forgive that sin, and will give you power over it, 
if you come to him. That is what he came to do. All you have to 
do is to flee right to him; and the moment we come, he gives us vic- 
tory. As long as you stay away from him, there is no victory for 
you. If you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will give you power 
over every sin. 

While we were in the North of England, a man came to a minis- 
ter at one of our meetings, and said: "I would like to come to 
Christ, but it seems as if my heart was chained, and I cannot come." 
The minister that was talking to him said: "Come to him, chains and 
all." The man said, " I will do that." Christ snapped the chains, 
and he got liberty that night. If you are chained, come with chains 
and all, and he will save you. We will now sing — 

"Just as lam, without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me, 1 ' 



THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 

"And he said unto Jesus, Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." — 
Luke 23: 42. 

Every one who is not a Christian ought to be interested in this 
man, to know how he was converted. Any man who objects to sud- 
den conversions should give attention to how this man was converted. 
If conversions are gradual, this poor thief could not have been con- 
verted. If a man who has lived a good, consistent life cannot be 
suddenly converted, then this thief didn't have any chance. If it 
takes six months, six weeks, or six days to convert a man, there was 
no chance for this thief. Turn to the 23d chapter of Luke, and you 
will see how the Lord dealt with this man, who was not only a thief, 
but the worst kind of a thief. It was only the worst classes who 
were condemned to die the death upon the cross. We find this man 
was condemned to that most ignominious death. 

When a prominent man dies, we are anxious to get his last words 
and acts. We ask, What did he do? What were his last words and 
acts? The last act of the Son of God was to save a sinner. He 
commenced his ministry by saving sinners, and ended it by saving 
this poor thief. " Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the 
lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord: Even the cap- 
tives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible 
shall be delivered." He took this captive from the jaws of death. 
He was on the borders of hell, and Christ snatched him from the 
grasp of Satan. We are told by Matthew and Mark that these 
thieves came to curse; they both reviled Christ. They were not 
only thieves but revilers; and they cast it into his teeth that he said, 
*' 1 am the Son of God." Here, then, our Lord is condemned by 
them. There were none to pity them. Perhaps they might have 
had some mother in the crowd, but no one else had any pity for them. 
Justice cried out: "Let them be put to death; they are not worthy 
to live." 

The question is: What was it converted one of these thieves? I 
do not know, but I have an idea that it was Christ's prayer. When 
Christ cried on the cross: "Forgive them, for they know not what 
they do ! " I can imagine that did what the scourge did not do. 
They had gone through the trial, and their hearts had not been 
broken; they had been nailed to the cross, but their hearts had not 
been subdued; they raised no cry to God for mercy, but they reviled 
125 



126 THE THIEF ON THE CEOSS. 

the Son of God. But when they heard the cry: " Father, forgive 
them, for they know not what they do ! " one of them says: " That 
man is not of the same spirit as we are. I would call out the thunder- 
bolts of heaven to consume them." There they are crying, " Save 
thyself if thou be the Son of God;" yet while they are crying this, 
the Son of God is crying to his Father to have mercy on them. It 
flashed into his soul that this was the Son of God, and that moment 
he confessed his sin. He turned to the other thief and rebuked him, 
and says, " Dost thou not fear God?" The fear of God fell upon 
him. There is not much hope of a man's being saved until the fear 
of God comes upon him. Solomon says, "The fear of God is the 
beginning of wisdom." We read in Acts that great fear fell upon 
the people: that was the fear of the Lord. That was the first sign 
that conviction had entered the soul of the thief. " Dost thou not 
fear God?" That was the first sign we have of life in that con- 
demned man. 

The next thing, he justifies Christ: " He hath done nothing amiss." 
When men are talking against Christ, they are a great way from be- 
coming Christians. Now he says, " He hath done nothing amiss." 
There was the world mocking him; but right there, in the midst of 
thieves, you can hear that thief crying out, " This man hath done 
nothing amiss." " But," he says, "we are suffering justly." Now 
he took his place among the sinners, instead of trying to justify him- 
self. He says: "We suffer justly; we have done wrong, and our 
condemnation is just." There is no hope for a sinner until he ad- 
mits that his condemnation is just. The great trouble is, people are 
trying to make out they are not sinners; and therefore there is no 
chance of reaching them. But this thief said, " Our sentence is just;" 
and he took his place among sinners. There is no hope for a sinner 
until he sees the condemnation is a just condemnation; because he 
has sinned, and come short of the glory of God. This thief confessed 
his sin, and then justified Christ, saying, " This man hath done noth- 
ing amiss." 

The next thing is, he had faith. Talk about faith, I think this is 
the most extraordinary case of faith in the Bible. We talk about 
Abraham as the father of the faithful ; Abraham's faith cannot com- 
pare with this man's faith. God had Abraham twenty-five years talk- 
ing up his faith. Moses say the burning bush, and God talked with 
him; he had reason to believe. But this man we have no reason to 
believe ever knew anything about Christ. His disciples had heard 
his wonderful sermons and parables, and seen him perform his mighty 
works; and yet they had forsaken him. One of his chief men, Peter, 
had denied him with a curse; perhaps the thief heard this. Judas 
had betrayed him. He saw no glittering crown upon his brow; he 
could see where they had put the crown of thorns, and the scars they 
made; he could see no sign of his kingdom. If he had a kingdom, 



THE THIEF ON THE CEOSS. 127 

where were his subjects? They were wagging their heads; they 
were crying: " Save thyself, if thou be King of the Jews." Yet 
that thief called him Lord. I consider that man had more faith than 
any other person mentioned in Scripture. When I was a boy I was 
a poor speller, but one day there came a word to the boy at the head 
of the class which he couldn't spell, and the word went down to the 
foot; none of the class could spell it. I spelled it, as we used to say 
then, by good luck ; and I went from the foot of the class to the 
head. So the thief on the cross passed by Abraham, Moses and 
Elijah, and went to the head of the class. How refreshing it must 
have been to Christ to have one more own him as Lord, and believe- 
he had a kingdom, and that he was a King. Oh, thank God for this, 
man's testimony." He said unto Jesus, " Lord, remember me when 
thou comest into thy kingdom." If you are going to get into the 
kingdom of God, or if you are going to come to Christ, you must 
have faith in him. 

The first thing this thief did, he feared God. Then he did not 
justify himself but justified Christ. " We, indeed, suffer justly, but 
this man hath done nothing amiss." Then his faith went out toward 
him; faith flashed into his soul. The moment he had faith in him 
he cried out: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom." 

Because I said something here the other night about the Jews, I 
don't know how many abusive letters I have received. I have a 
thousand times more respect for the Jew, who will not believe in the 
Son of God, than I have for those who believe in him and will not 
trust him. This thief, the moment he did believe Christ was the 
Son of God, right there he owned him: "Lord, remember me." 
How many men in Philadelphia know he is the Son of God, but have 
not the moral courage to come out and call him Lord. This thief — 
ah, how noble! right there alone, no one standing by him — not even 
the thief on the other side. There was the chief priest, Caiaphas, 
and the chief men of his nation against him; and there was no one 
cared to speak out on that memorable hour, only that poor thief! I 
can imagine he had a praying mother, and that when he was a little 
boy his mother taught him the fifty-fifth chapter of Isaiah, and he 
learned that verse: "Seek ye the Lord while may be found; call ye 
upon him while he is near." When he found this was the Lord, he 
called upon him at once. A man said to me once: " I cannot make 
a prayer; I read prayers." What could this poor thief have done if 
he could not have made a prayer? He had no book; and if anyone 
had given him a book, he could not have read it. He prayed out of 
the heart. His prayer was short, but it brought the blessing; it 
came to the point: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom." He asked the Lord to give him, right there and then, 
what he wanted. 



128 THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 

You see, in the conversion of this thief, that salvation is distinct 
and separate from works. Now some people tell us we have to work 
to be saved. What has the man who believes that to say about the 
salvation of this thief? How is he going to work, when he has nails 
through both hands and through both feet? He cannot work with 
his hands or run with his feet. When he had the use of his hands, 
they were lifted up to shed blood; and when he had the use of his 
feet, they were engaged in the service of the devil. 

He took the Lord at his word, and believed. It is with the heart 
men believe, not with their hands or feet. All that is necessary for 
a man to be saved is, to believe with his heart. This thief made a 
good confession. If he had been a Christian fifty years, he could not 
have done Christ more service than he did there. He confessed him 
before the world; and for eighteen hundred years that confession 
has been told. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have all recorded 
it. They felt it so important that they thought we should have it. 
Some one has said that Christ did not give the thief arms to fight for 
God, but he gave him wings that he might fly away to his Creator. He 
got an answer to his prayer as soon as he asked. He said, " Lord." 
He put the Lord at the head of the prayer. "Lord, remember me." 
Three short words — three golden links in that chain that bound him 
to the throne of God. The Lord could not help answering that 
prayer. He says he will save all that will call upon him; the man 
called upon him, and he had to answer the prayer. Did you ever 
see a man in the wide, wide world that ever called to the Lord out 
of the depths of his heart, that the Lord did not answer? The 
answer came. 

See how salvation is separate and distinct from all ordinances — 
not but ordinances are right in their place. Some people say you 
cannot be saved if you are not baptized. Many people think it is im- 
possible for any one to get into the kingdom^ of God if he is not bap- 
tized into it. I don't want you to think I am talking against ordi- 
nances. Baptism is right in its place; but when you put it in the 
place of salvation, you put a snare in the way. You cannot baptize 
men into the kingdom of God. The last conversion before Christ 
perished on the cross ought to forever settle that question. If you 
tell me a man cannot get into Paradise without being baptized, I 
answer, This thief was not baptized. If he had wanted to be bap- 
tized, I don't believe he could have found a man to baptize him. 
Some people tell us a man cannot be saved until he has partaken of 
the sacrament. The thief did not. Who administered the bread 
and wine to him? Was there a man on that mountain that would 
have faith to believe he could have been saved? Would the Roman 
government have allowed them to administer the sacrament, or bap- 
tism? The moment he asked for life he got it. Salvation is dis- 
tinct from ordinances. Baptism is one thing; the Lord's Supper is 



THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 129 

another thing; and salvation through Christ is another. The only way 
for us to be saved is to come straight to Christ for life, and to own, 
as this man, that we have sinned, and that our condemnation is just. 

Bear in mind, God is just; and the condemnation he has pro- 
nounced against us is a just condemnation. "The soul that sinneth 
it shall die." God has a right to put a penalty to his law, and it is 
just for God to pronounce condemnation. But God is also a God of 
mercy. God will have mercy upon all them that call upon him. I 
can imagine, after that thief believed, he commenced right there at 
once to praise God. I can imagine, as the soldier drove his spear 
into our Savior's side, there came flashing into his mind the words of 
the prophet Zechariah: " In that day there shall be a fountain opened 
to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin 
and for uncleanness." He was led out in the morning to the cross; 
in the evening he was in the Paradise of God, crowned with a crown 
he should wear through all ages. In the morning led out to suffer 
punishment; in the evening, going down the streets of Paradise, arm 
in arm with the Son of God. In the morning, not an eye to pity 
him; in the evening, up there amid the hallelujahs of heaven. In 
the morning, in the society of thieves; in the evening, washed and 
made clean in the blood of the Lamb. 

You know Christ died a little while before the thief. I can im- 
agine he wanted to hurry home to get a mansion for him, and to 
give him a welcome when he got there, that he should not be a 
stranger. The Lord loved him, because he confessed him in that 
dark hour. It was a dark hour for many of them who said, He is not 
the Son of God, the Savior of the world. 

Some go so far as to try and make out he was an imposter. In 
this dark day, should we not come out like the thief and confess him, 
and take our stand on his side? If we do, he will remember it. The 
thief wanted to be remembered in Christ's kingdom. When Christ 
instituted the Lord's Supper, his dying request was we should re- 
member him in this world; and now the thief's request was, that he 
might be remembered in his new kingdom. Go into some of our 
churches next Sunday morning, where they are going to administer 
the Lord's Supper. The bread and wine are there. The min- 
ister, who pronounces the benediction, asks the people to stay and 
partake of the Lord's Supper. Two-thirds of the people will get up 
and turn their backs upon it. They say: "What do I care for his 
death? What do I care for what the Son of God has done for me?" 
But this thief, thanks be to God! did confess him! He asked to be 
remembered; he believed Christ has a kingdom. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of people believe Christ has a kingdom; yet they will not seek 
him, and they will not cry out, "Lord, remember me." I believe 
that if every unsaved soul to-night in this hall would cry out, from 
the depths of his heart, " Lord, remember me," the answer would 
9 



130 THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. 

come this very night. Before I get through this sermon, the answer 
would come. He would remember you, and there would be the re- 
sponse, " This very night you shall become an heir of my kingdom." 
You can become this night a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, if 
you will. I can imagine how the thief's soul leaped for joy when he 
heard Christ say, "It is finished." He wanted to follow him. I can 
imagine, when the men came to break the legs of these thieves, that 
this one was in a hurry to be gone. The moment his soul left that 
body, it leaped into a chariot sent down from heaven; and away it 
went to meet the Savior. He was a condemned man in the morn- 
ing; in the evening in the Paradise of God. So if you have come 
in here without God and hope, as black in heart as that poor thief y 
if you call upon God, he will have mercy upon you and save you to- 
night. I have no doubt that, until he cried to the Lord, that thief 
had no thought that he would be saved. I have no doubt thousands 
come here without any thought of being saved; they come out of 
curiosity. I wish Christians would pray that the fear of the Lord 
would come to this audience, and that you may confess him, and 
take your place as a sinner, and ask God to remember you. He will 
remember you and make you an heir of his kingdom, if you accept 
of his salvation as a gift. This night, this hour, will you not call 
upon him — this hour, at the close of this meeting? Dear friends, what 
will you do with Jesus — with the Savior? He comes and he offers 
salvation. You can be saved now if you will. He is just the same 
Savior the thief had: it is the same cry he made that you want to 
make. Let that cry go up now. While I am speaking do you whis- 
per, "Lord, Lord, remember me!" and see if he does not answer 
your prayer. Do you want the Lord to remember you, and have 
mercy upon you? Call upon him to-night. The thief was the first 
man to enter Paradise after the veil of the Temple was rent. If we 
could look up yonder, and see around the Throne; if we could catch 
a glimpse of the Throne, we should see the Father there and Jesus 
Christ at his right hand; but hard by the throne you should see that 
thief. He is there to-night. Eighteen hundred years he has been 
there, just because he cried: "Lord, remember me when thou cora- 
est into thy kingdom." I see Mary Magdalene there, and Zaccheus 
the chief publican of Jericho; and if I could ask them how they came 
there, they would shout down, "Saved by grace." There is only 
one way to heaven. O my friends, do you want to join that throng? 
Then send up the cry, " Lord, remember me." Oh, I pray to-night 
that hundreds may send up that cry. 



STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 

44 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God 
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty: And 
case things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen,' yea, and 
things which are not, to hring to naught things that are: that no flesh should glory in his 
presence." I. Cobinthians i: 27-29. 

I want to call your attention to the 27th verse of that chapter I 
read to you: " But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things to con- 
found the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, 
and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things 
which are not, to bring to naught things that are: that no flesh 
should glory in his presence." There is just one sentence there I 
would like to call your attention to: " But God hath chosen the 
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." 
Then in the 29th verse he tells us why he has chosen the weak things 
— "that no flesh may glory in his presence." 

Now, if we are to have the Word in this City of New York, we 
must give God all the glory. I dread coming to a new place; it 
takes almost a week or fortnight to come down to solid work. The 
people are thinking of the choir, and saying, " What a large choir !" 
and " So many ministers ! Surely there is going to be great work 
now; there is such a great choir and congregation, and so many 
ministers." It is not by might and power, but by God's Spirit; and 
we have got to get our eyes off of all these things, and there will be 
no work and no blessing until this is done. Now, we have not come 
with any new Gospel; it is the old Gospel, the old story, and we 
want the old power, the power of the Holy Ghost; and, if it is any- 
thing less than that, it will all come to naught and be like a morning 
cloud — soon pass away. Now I can tell you, before the meetings 
go on any further, who will be disappointed, and who in after years 
will say the meetings were a failure — every man and every woman 
that don't get quickened themselves. If there is a minister here in 
New York that doesn't get quickened himself, he will say the work 
has failed; but I have never known a man who has got quickened, 
to say the work has failed. Nowhere that we have been has it been 
the case. What we want is to get down to ourselves; and if there 
is to be a true revival, there must be first a casting-down of our- 
selves before a lifting-up. It was only when Abraham was on his 
face in the dust before God that he would talk to him. And it is 
131 



132 STRENGTH IX WEAKNESS. 

then that God lifts us up and the blessing comes. There is no true 
revival until God's own people are lifted, until they are quickened. 
It will be superficial until then; it will be a counterfeit. If you at- 
tempt to begin work among the ungodly and unconverted before 
you get quickened yourself, God won't bless you. As the Psalmist 
says: "When the Lord has restored to us the joy of his salvation, 
then we will be able to teach transgressors the way of the kino-dora 
of God," and not until then. And when we are cold and lukewarm, and 
are conformed to the world, and have not the Holy Ghost resting 
upon us, why God is not going to revive his work. Here and there 
we will hear of one converted, but it won't be deep and thorough un- 
less the Church of God is quickened. 

Now, I have just come here, and I confess I have seen nothing in 
America like what has pleased me in Princeton. I think they have 
a revival there; and the President of the college told me he had not 
seen anything like it, and one of the Faculty told me he didn't think 
there had ever been anything like it in the history of Princeton. Of 
course I inquired into it, and I found that they had sent for different 
ministers to come there and had been disappointed; and they got to- 
gether — the Christians did — and prayed God to bless them, and one of 
the Faculty asked them to pray for him: and right there the work 
broke out, and there have been about fifty quickened and brought 
back who had wandered from Christ; and it looks now as if all 
Princeton was going to be blessed. 

Oh that it may commence here to-night in our hearts; that we may 
be quickened first, and then how quick the Lord will bless us. If 
you want to introduce two men to each other, you want to be near 
to them. If you want to introduce sinners to God, you must be 
near to God and to the sinner, too; and if a man is near God he 
will have a love for the sinner, and his heart will be near that man. 
But until we are brought near to God ourselves, we cannot introduce 
men to God. Somebody has said God uses the vessel that is nearest 
at hand; and if we are near to God he will use us; and if we are 
not, of course he cannot. Now, what we want is to be in a position 
that will give God all the glory. There are some things that make 
me tremble, at times, as if the work will all come to naught; be- 
cause there is so much man- worship. Now, we have got to get rid 
of this man- worship, before it will be a deep work. We have got to 
sink self. If we can only get "I" down in the dust, and get outside 
of our dignity, and get self out of the way and say: "Here, Lord, 
use me if thou canst; and, if not, use somebody else;" or in the 
spirit of the wilderness preacher who said, " I must decrease, but he 
must increase," then the Lord will take us up and use us. 

And right here, before I forget it, I want to urge the people of 
New York — the Christian people — not to buy anything of these peo- 
ple on the street. I am told that sixty-five men have come on from 



STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 133 

Philadelphia to sell photographs and medals, and I don't know what 
not; and they are hawking them in the streets. Why, I would al- 
most think nobody would come into the meeting if, when coming 
along, they hear these men crying the photographs. I believe that 
Christian people who patronize these men are doing the cause of 
Christ a great injury. I don't know that anything is hindering the 
work more than these men, that are making money out of us. If 
you want hymn-books, go into some bookstore and buy them. Don't 
buy these photographs. They are no more photographs of us than 
they are of you: I have not had one taken for eight years. Some 
men complained that they had got counterfeits, and I was glad they 
had been cheated, because they ought not to buy them so on the 
street. People are apt to say of us: "Those fellows are speculating; 
they are just making money; they don't care anything about saving 
your souls." And the impression has gone abroad just on account 
of people patronizing these men. Oh! let me beg of you to do any- 
thing you can to keep down this man- worship. Let us look at the 
cross, with Christ full in view; and then we will have men coming 
into the kingdom of God. 

Now, let us get back to the text. It is the weak things that God 
wants to use. We want the great, the mighty; but God takes the 
foolish things, the despised things, the things which are not. What 
for? That no flesh may glory in his sight. Now, what is that writ- 
ten for unless it is that we shall learn the lesson that God shall have 
the glory, and that we are not to take any of the glory to ourselves. 
" That no flesh should glory in his presence." Just the moment we 
are ready to take our places in the dust and give God his place, and 
let him have all the glory, then it is that the Spirit of God will be 
given to us. If we are lifted up and say, We have got such great 
meetings and such crowds are coming; and get to thinking about 
crowds and about the people, and get our minds off from God, and 
are not constantly in communion with him, lifting our hearts in 
prayer, this work will be a stupendous failure. 

You will find, in all ages, God has been trying to teach his children 
this lesson — that he uses the weak instead of the strong What is 
highly esteemed of man is an abomination to God. When God was 
about to deluge the earth, he wanted an ark built. What did he do 
— did he call an army? No; he just called one man to build the ark. 
In the sight of the world it was a very little thing; and yet when the 
deluge came it was worth more than all the world. The weak things 
of the world that excite our scorn and contempt are the very things 
that God uses. "When God delivered Israel out of Egypt, he didn't 
send an army. We would have sent an army, or an orator. We 
would have sent some man who would have gone down before the 
king, and laid it out before him in grand style; but God didn't do 
that. He sent this man Moses, who had been back there in the des- 



134 STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 

ert forty years, a man with an impediment in his speech; and God 
said to Moses, " Moses, I want you to go down into Egypt and bring 
my people out of bondage." That is not our way. When the king 
looked at him he ordered him out of his presence. " Who is God, 
that I should obey him?" He found out who he was. God used 
the little fly and the little frog. The world looks upon the frog 
with scorn and contempt; but Moses said, "Oh, there are a good 
many of them." We may be very weak in ourselves, but see what 
a mighty God we have. God likes to take the weak things to con- 
found the mighty. When God wants to move a mountain, he does 
not take a bar of iron; but he takes the little worm. The fact is, we 
have got too much strength. We are not weak enough. It is not 
our strength that we want. One drop of God's strength is worth 
more than all the world. There was that giant who, we are told, 
for forty days came out every morning and every evening. Down 
into that valley came the giant of Gath every morning, and he terri- 
fied all the army of Saul; the whole army were trembling; they were 
afraid. When Joshua was weak in himself and strong in the Lord, 
then they did not fear the giants. But you see Saul and his army 
had got their eyes off from God. When we get our eyes off from God, 
how mighty that giant looks. There came a young stripling up from 
the country — a sort of delegate of the Christian Commission. He 
heard of this giant, and the young boy began to inquire, " What 
does this mean?" And they told him, and he wanted to go right out 
at once to meet him. The last man we would have chosen; but 
God's ways are not our ways. God will have the glory, that is the 
point. If it had been some great giant, then we would have given 
the giant all the glory. The young stripling requires no army of 
Saul; he just takes a few small, smooth, round stones out of the 
brook and puts them in his sling. He says to the giant: " You have 
your sword; but I have come in the name of my God." Yes, he 
leaned on the strength of God. Now just look at that! We are to 
pass that little stone into that sling; God directs it, and the work 
is done. The giant of Gath falls. David was the last one we 
would have chosen, though he is chosen of God. What we want is 
to learn the lesson that we are weak, and we don't need any strength 
but God's strength. Look at Jonathan with his small army! "Why," 
he says, "the Lord can save by few as well as many." It is not 
these great meetings that are going to do the work. It is not by 
might and by power, but by the Spirit of God. 

Let me just impress this upon you, that it is weakness that God 
wants. There was weeping once in heaven. John wept when the 
book of seals was brought out, and there wasn't any one who could 
open the book. He might have looked upon Abel; but Abel wasn't 
worthy to open the book. He might have looked upon Enoch; but 
Enoch wasn't worthy. He might have looked upon Abraham; and 



STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 135 

yet the father of the faithful wasn't worthy to open that book. There 
was Daniel and Elijah, and the holy men of the Old Testament; and 
not one of them worthy to open the book. Some of the saints of the 
New Testament had entered upon their reward. There was Stephen 
who was martyred: Stephen wasn't able to open the book. And 
John said he began to cry as he looked around, and there wasn't one 
worthy to open the book. But pretty soon a voice said: "Don't 
weep; the Lion of the tribe of Judah is able to open the seals;" and 
John began to look around to see the Lion, and to, it was a Lamb! 
Instead of having strength, we want weakness. It is the Lion — the 
Lamb of Calvary. He sealed the Lion of hell; he overcame the 
Lion; he conquered him. What we want to-night is to ask God to 
give us weakness, not strength; then these obstacles, why how small 
they look! When we are walking with God, all these obstacles, how 
they flee away. Go up in a balloon and look down upon some giant, 
:and how small he looks. : Go up into some mountain and look down 
upon some giant, and how small he looks! But get on a level, and 
how large he looks! God takes the weak things to confound the 
mighty. When he wanted twelve men to introduce his gospel, 
whom did he take? Did he call the wise and mighty? No; he 
oalled a few ignorant Galilean fishermen. It was those men the 
power of God rushed in upon. They were weak in themselves, but 
strong in God. So to-night, if there is a band weak in themselves 
but strong in God, what a work they can do ! No other strength is 
worth having but the strength of God. When God wanted Ger- 
many to be blessed, he gave power to one man. The Spirit came 
upon Martin Luther, and all Germany was blessed. When darkness 
and superstition was settling over Scotland, the Spirit of God came 
upon John Knox; and he moved all Scotland. You can go where 
you will in Scotland to-day, and everywhere you will hear the name 
and feel the influence of John Knox in that country. You can go 
into England to-day, and you will feel the influence of Wesley and 
Whitefield, grand men and mighty. They relied not upon their own 
strength, for the Spirit of the Living God was upon them. They 
were mighty in God. Look at that man Gideon. He marshaled 
his army of 30,000 men to give battle to the Philistines. God said: 
"Gideon, your army is too great. My people would be lifted up, and 
they would take the glory upon themselves." God said to Gid- 
eon: "You just say to the men who are fearful and afraid, 'Go 
home.'" And the Lord reduced the army 20,000, leaving only 
10,000 men. But God said: "Gideon, you have got too many; if 
those 10,000 men get victory, they will say, 'Look what we have 
done.' Just take them down to the water, and we will try them 
again. Those that drink it up one way and those that lap it up 
another, they shall be separated." Then God took away all but 
three hundred. God said that was enough. "If I get a victory 



136 STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS. 

with those three hundred, I will get the glory." I would rather 
have three hundred men in New York whose hearts are right with 
God, than a host who take upon themselves the glory which belongs 
to the Lord. 

I have no doubt but that some here will say: "There are so many ob- 
stacles in the way, I don't believe we are going to succeed. You 
won't succeed in New York; it is a very hard place, New York is."' 
If God is with us, we are going to succeed. If we take God out of 
our plans, we are going to fail; and we ought to fail. Is not the 
God of our fathers strong enough to take this city and shake it as a 
little child? There is not a skeptic in the city of New York but 
what the power of God can reach. When we were in Philadelphia, 
we almost failed for a few weeks. The crowds were so great, that 
many of those who attended the meetings spent most of their time 
in watching the people. We could not get their eyes toward the 
Cross, for a long time. By-and-by, when the holidays came on, the 
numbers began to fall off, and it was the best thing for us. It was 
what we wanted, so that men could think of God. 

Now, my friends, do not think that anything is small that God 
handles. Look at that little cloud up there, not bigger than a man's 
hand. But that cloud was large enough to water all Palestine; and 
the land that had thirsted for three years and six months got all the 
water out of that cloud that it wanted. Plenty large enough if God 
is in it. Let me say, before we close, that what we want is to get hold 
of God. Now, there are a great many people that lend their ears 
to other people. They never hear for themselves; they want you 
people to use their ears for them. Let us each go up for ourselves, 
and pray to God that we may get a blessing for ourselves. If the 
Spirit of the Lord God comes upon us, it will take all eternity to tell 
the result. If the Spirit of God comes upon us afresh, I have no 
more doubt about the success of the meetings than I have that we 
exist. If we are cold and indifferent, then the work will be super- 
ficial; it will not be lasting, and will not be such as many of you are 
praying for. Let us ask God that we may receive the blessing of 
the Holy Spirit. Let the prayer be: "O God, quicken me! O God, 
give me a fresh baptism! Instil in me the blessing of Thy salvation." 
God said to Elijah, just before he went away, "Go call Elisha to take 
thy place." If God calls us to do a work, he can qualify us to do it. 
When the time drew near for Elijah to be taken from Elisha, Elijah 
said to Elisha, " I will go down and see the prophet." It had been 
revealed to Elisha that Elijah was going to be taken away. Elisha 
wanted to be anointed near the place he was called to fill. They 
traveled together until they reached Bethel ; and then Elijah 
said, " You stay here, and I will go down to Jericho and see how 
the prophets are getting along down there." But Elisha kept close 
to him, and they walked arm-in-arm to Jericho. When they reached 



THEIR FAITH. 137 

Jericho, Elijah said, " You just stay here and I will go over to Jor- 
dan." They were on a tour of inspection of the theological semina- 
ries. But Elisha still kept close to his companion, and as they were 
talking together, Elijah asked: "What can I do for you, Elisha? 
What is your petition ?" " Well," says Elisha, "I want a double por- 
tion of your spirit." Well, that was a pretty bold petition. He was 
asking great things. That is what God wants us to do — ask great 
things. They come to the waters of the Jordan; and Elisha takes off 
his mantle, the waters spread, and they pass through safely, dry shod. 
While they were talking, there suddenly comes a chariot from heaven 
to bear Elijah away to glory. And Elisha takes up the mantle of 
Elijah, and Elisha goes back to Jordan; and when they saw the man- 
tle of Elijah they cried out, " The spirit of Elijah rests upon Elisha." 
The mighty spirit of Elijah rests upon us to-night. Let us go to our 
closets, let us go to our homes, and let us cry to the God of Elijah — - 
" Here I am, God; use me!" — that we may be ready for all his serv- 
ices. Oh, that we may be weak in ourselves, that we may give all 
the honor and glory to Jesus, and if we do this we will see how quick 
he will use it. 



THEIR FAITH. 

'When he saw their faith." Luke 5: 



In beginning his sermon, Mr. Moody called attention to a clause of 
the 20th verse of the 5th chapter of St. Luke: "When he saw their 
faith." A little while before this, said he, Christ had been driven 
out of Nazareth, his native town, and had come down to Capernaum 
to live; and he had begun his ministry, and some mighty miracles 
had already been wrought in Capernaum. A little while before this r 
one of the officers in King Herod's army had a son who had been re- 
stored. Peter's wife's mother, that lay sick with the fever, had been 
healed, and Mark tells us that the whole city was moved; that they 
had come to the door of the house where he was sitting, the whole 
city bringing their sick. In fact, there was a great revival in Caper- 
naum. That is what it was, and it is all it was. The news was 
spreading far and near. Everybody coming out of Capernaum was 
taking out tidings of what this mighty preacher was doing, and his 
mighty miracles, and the sayings that were constantly falling from 



138 



THEIR FAITH. 



his lips. And we read in a few verses before this 20th verse that a 
man full of leprosy had come to him and said: "Lord, if thou canst, 
make me clean;" and I want to call your attention to the difference 
between the man that had the palsy and the man that had the lep- 
rosy. The man with the palsy had friends who had faith. The man 
who had the leprosy had no friends who believed he could be cleans- 
ed. There had been no leper cleansed for eight hundred years, and 
we read back in the days of Elisha that there was a leper that was 
cleansed; but none since that time until now. Here is a leper that 
has faith, and goes right straight to the Son of God himself. And I 
want to say, if there is a poor sinner here to-night, that has not got 
any friends that would pray for him, you can go right straight to 
Jesus himself. You don't need any bishop or priest or potentate to 
intercede. Right away to Christ came this poor leper, and he said, 
** If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." 

There is faith for you. He did not say, like the man in the 9th 
•chapter of Mark, "If thou canst do anything for us, have compas- 
sion." He put the "if" in the wrong place; but this leper said, "If 
thou wilt, thou canst do it." It pleased the Lord, and he said: " I 
will; be thou clean." And away went the leprosy; he was made 
well in a minute. And of course this news had gone out of Caper- 
naum, and not only the city was stirred, but the country also; and 
now we read that they were coming up from all parts of Judea, from 
Galilee and all the,villages, and even from Jerusalem. The news 
had reached Jerusalem; and the Pharisees and philosophers and wise 
men were coming up to this northern town, to see what this great 
revival meant. They didn't come up to get a blessing; like a great 
many who come to these meetings, they came out of curiosity. They 
came to see how it was that this man was performing such mighty 
miracles; and they were told that he was in the house. There they 
were sitting around the Master, and we are told the power of the 
Lord was present to heal them. But it don't say that they were 
healed. They didn't think that they were sick and needed a Savior. 
Like hundreds now, that are drawing around them their filthy rags of 
self-righteousness, they think they are good enough without salva- 
tion; and they just come here to reason out the philosophy of the 
meeting, and how it is so many people come together night after 
night to hear this old Gospel, which has been preached eighteen 
hundred years. "And the power of the Lord was present to heal 
them." I have thought, a number of times, what a glorious thing it 
would have been if they had all been healed. What a glorious thing 
if those men coming out of Judea had been converted, and gone 
back to publish the glad tidings in their homes and villages. What 
a revival it would have been. But they didn't come for that pur- 
pose, but only to reason out the thing. 

But while these things were being done, suddenly a noise was 



THEIR FAITH. 139 

heard overhead. The people heard a noise on the roof, and looked 
up to see what was the matter. Now, there were four men in Ca- 
pernaum — I have an idea they were young converts — who found a 
man who had the palsy, and they could not get him to Jesus. Mat- 
thew, Mark, and Lake, all three, give an account, but don't one of 
them say that the man himself had any faith. I can imagine these 
four men said to the man with the palsy : " If we can get you to 
Jesus, all he has to do is to speak and the palsy is gone." And I 
see these four men making arrangements to take this man with the 
palsy away to Christ. They prepared a couch, something like the 
stretcher we had in the war; and I see these four men, each one 
taking his place to carry that couch through the streets of Caper- 
naum. They go with a firm step and steady tread; they are mov- 
ing toward that house where Christ is. These men have confidence. 
They know that the Son of God has power to heal this man, and 
they say, "If we can only get him to Jesus, the work will be done;" 
and while these philosophers and scribes and wise men were there, 
trying to reason out the philosophy of the thing, these men arrived 
at the door, and for the orowd could not get in. They undoubtedly 
asked some of the men to come out and let this man with the palsy 
in; but they could not get them out, and there they are. But faith 
looks over obstacles. Faith is not going to surrender. Now these 
men felt they must get in in some way, and I can imagine they went 
to one of the neighbors and asked them: " Jast allow us to use your 
stairway; here is a man that has the leprosy, and we want to get him 
in." And I see the men taking this man up, and at last they got him 
upon the roof of the house where Christ is preaching; and now you can 
hear them ripping up the roof, and everybody looks up to see what the 
noise is; and at last they see that, while Christ is preaching, these four 
men are making a hole large enough to let a man down through. 
He must have been a good man, or he would have complained to see 
his roof torn up in that way. But these men wanted to get the leper 
cleansed; that was worth more than the roof. They wanted to get 
the man blessed. They let the man right down in the presence of 
these Pharisees and scribes. It would have been like letting him 
down into an ice-house, if Christ had not been there. Those scribes 
and Pharisees — they didn't have any compassion; they didn't have 
any sympathy for the fallen; they didn't have any sympathy for the 
erring. There was One who had sympathy for the man who was 
suffering. They laid him right down at the feet of Jesus. My 
friends, you can't take palsied souls to a better place than to the 
feet of Jesus. They called upon the crowd to stand aside and make 
room, and they just placed him at the feet of Jesus. Christ looks up, 
and when he saw their faith — not the man's faith; it don't say that 
he had any — he saw their faith — that's the point. I believe that that 
whole miracle is to teach us — that that whole lesson is to teach us 



140 THEIR FAITH. 

Christians, that God will honor our faith. I see the Son of God look- 
ing up at those four men who laid this leper down. He looked up 
yonder and saw their faith. There is nothing on this earth that 
pleases him so much as faith. Wherever he finds faith, it 
pleases him. Twice Christ marveled. I believe Christ marveled 
only twice. Once he marveled at the faith of the Centurion, and he 
marveled at the unbelief of the Jews. 

When he saw their faith, he said to the man, looking down at him : 
"Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven." Why, he didn't come 
for that; he only expected to get rid of his palsy; he didn't expect 
to have his sins forgiven. These men begun to look around with 
amazement. " That is a very grievous charge ; he forgives sins. 
What right has he to do that? It is God, and God alone, who does 
that." I tell you, the Jews to a man didn't believe in the divinity of 
Jesus Christ. They began to reason among themselves; but Christ 
knew what they were thinking about. He could read their thoughts. 
Christ said to them: "Is it easier for me to say to the man, 'His sins- 
be forgiven,' or for me to say, 'Rise up and walk'? Now that you 
may know that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins, I say, 
'Rise up and walk.'" Now the man was palsied. He hadn't the 
power to rise, but he leaps up in a minute. He packs up that old 
bed that he had lain on for years, and away he goes. The man walks 
out with his bed on his back, and away he goes home. The men be- 
gan to look at one another with amazement; and one and another 
said, " We have seen strange things to-day." How long did it take 
the Lord Jesus Christ to heal that man? Some men say, " Oh, we 
don't believe in instantaneous conversions." How long did it take 
the Lord to heal the man of the leprosy? One word, and away went 
the leprosy. One word, and the man stood up, and he rolled his bed 
up, and away he went on his way home. I should like to have seen 
his wife. I can imagine she was about as surprised as any woman 
you ever saw. 

But now the word I want to call your attention to is this: "When 
he saw their faith." Now, there are a great many men in New York 
that don't have any faith in the Gospel at all. They don't believe 
in that Bible. There are a great many men in New York who are 
infidels; there are a great mairy skeptics. There is one thing that 
encourages me very much. The Lord can honor our faith, and raise 
those men. " When he saw their faith." Suppose a man should go 
to the house of his neighbor, and say: " Come, let us take neighbor 
Levi to neighbor Peter's house; Christ is there, and we can get him 
healed;" and the two found they weren't able to carry the man, so 
they got three, and the three weren't able; so they got the fourth. 
Now I don't know of anything that would make a man get up quicker 
than to have four people combining to try to bring him to Christ. 
Suppose one man calls upon him after breakfast; he doesn't think 



THEIR FAITH. 141 

much about it; he has had some one invite him to Christ before. 
Suppose before dinner the second man comes and says: "I want to 
lead you to Christ; I want to introduce you to the Son of God." The 
man has got quite aroused now; perhaps he has never had the sub- 
ject presented to him by two different men in one day. But the 
third man has come, and the man has got thoroughly aroused by this 
time and he says to himself, " Why, I never thought so much about 
my soul as I have to-day." But before the man gets to bed at night, 
the fourth man has come, and I will guarantee that he won't sleep 
much that night — four men trying to bring him to Christ. If we 
can't bring our friends to Christ, let us get others to help us. If 
four men won't do it, let us add the fifth, and the Lord will see 
our faith, and the Lord will honor our faith, and we will see them 
brought to the Son of God. 

When I was at Nashville during the late war, I was closing the 
noon prayer-meeting one day, and a great strong man came up to 
me, trembling from head to foot. He took a letter out of his pocket 
and wanted to have me read it. It was a letter from his sister. The 
sister stated in that letter that every night, as the sun went down, 
she went down on her knees to pray for him. The sister was 600 
miles away, and said the soldier: " I never thought of my soul until 
last night. I have stood before the cannon's mouth, and it never 
made me tremble; but, sir, I haven't slept a wink since I got that 
letter." I think there is many a Christian here who understands what 
that letter meant. The Lord had seen her faith; it was God honor- 
ing faith, and it was God answering prayer. And so, my friends, if 
God sees our faith, these friends that we are anxious for will be 
brought to Christ. When we were in Edinburgh, a man came to me 
and said: "Over yonder is one of our most prominent infidels in 
Edinburgh. I wish you would go over and see him." I took my 
seat beside him and asked if he was a Christian. He laughed at me, 
and said he didn't believe in the Bible. " Well," said I, after talk- 
ing for some time, "will you let me pray with you? Will you let 
me pray for you?" "Yes," said he, "just pray, and see if God will 
answer your prayer. Now let the question be decided." " Will 
you kneel?" "No, I won't kneel. Who be I going to kneel be- 
fore?" He said it with considerable sarcasm. I got down and 
prayed before the infidel. He sat very straight, so that the people 
should understand that he was not in sympathy at all with my prayer. 
After I got through I said: "Well, my friend, I believe that God 
will answer my prayer; and I want you to let me know when you 
are saved." " Yes, I will let you know when I am saved," all with 
considerable sarcasm. At last, up at Wick, at a meeting in the 
open air, one night, on the outskirts of the crowd, I saw the Edin- 
burgh infidel. He said, " Didn't I tell you God wouldn't answer 
your prayer?" I said, "The Lord will answer my prayer yet." I 



142 THEIR FAITH. 

had a few minutes' conversation with him and left him; and just a 
year ago this month, when we were preaching in Liverpool, I got a 
letter from one of the leading pastors of Edinburgh, stating that the 
Edinburgh infidel had found his way to Christ, and found the Lord. 
He wrote an interesting letter, saying how God had saved him. 
And there may be many in the city of New York who will laugh at 
this idea, and they will cavil, and perhaps they will say to-night that 
God don't answer prayer; but he does, if Christians will only have 
faith; God can save the greatest infidel, the greatest skeptic, the 
greatest drunkard. 

What we want is to have faith. Oh, let that word sink down 
deep into the heart of every Christian here to-night; and let us show 
our faith by our works. Let us go out and bring all our friends here; 
and if there is poor preaching, we can bring down from heaven the 
necessary blessings without good preaching. In Philadelphia, a 
skeptic came in just out of curiosity. He wanted to see the crowd, 
and he hadn't more than crossed the threshold of the door before the 
Spirit of God met him; and I asked him if there was anything in the 
sermon that influenced him, in hopes that I was going to get some- 
thing to encourage me; but he could not tell what the text was. I 
asked him if it was the singing; but he didn't know what Mr Sankey 
had sung. It was the power of God alone that converted him; and 
that is what we want in these meetings. If we have this power, 
when we invite our friends here, the Lord will meet them, and will 
answer prayer and save them. Let us go and bring our unconverted 
friends here. All through the services let us be lifting up our hearts 
in prayer. God save our friend! O God, convert him! And in 
answer to our prayer, the Lord will save them. 

While in London, there was a man- away off in India — a godly 
father— who had a son in London; and he got a furlough, and came 
clear from India to London to see after his boy's spiritual welfare. 
Do you think God let that man come thus far without honoring that 
faith? No. He converted that son, and that is the kind we want — 
where faith and works go together; and if we have faith, God will 
honor it, and answer our prayer. Only a few weeks ago, in the city 
of Philadelphia, there was a mother that had two sons. They were 
just going as fast as they could to ruin. They were breaking her 
heart; and she went into a little prayer-meeting, and got up and pre- 
sented them for prayer. They had been on a drunken spree, or had 
just got started in that way, and she knew that their end would be a 
drunkard's grave; and she went among these Christians and said, 
" Won't you just cry to God for my two boys?" The next morning 
those two boys had made an appointment to meet each other on the 
corner of Market and Thirteenth streets — though not that they knew 
anything about our meeting; and while one of them was there at the 
corner, waiting for his brother to come, he followed the people who 



THEIR FAITH. 143 

were flooding into the depot building; and the Spirit of the Lord 
met him, and he was wounded and found his way to Christ. After 
his brother came, he found the place too crowded to enter; so he too 
went curiously into another meeting and found Christ, and went 
home happy. And when he got home he told his mother what the 
Lord had done for him; and the second son came in with the same 
tidings. I heard one get up afterward to tell his experience in the 
young convert's meeting, and he had no sooner told the story than 
the other got up and said: " I am that brother; and there is not a 
happier home in Philadelphia than we have got." And they went 
out bringing their friends to Christ. 

Let us now show our faith by our works. Let us away to our 
friends, to our neighbors, and to those we have an influence over, and 
let us talk about Christ, and let us plead with God that they may be 
converted; and instead of there being a few thousand converted in 
New York, tens of thousands can be converted; and let our prayers 
go up to God in our homes, and around our family altars. Let the 
prayers go up, " O God, save my unconverted husband." " O God, 
save my unconverted wife." " O God, save my unconverted chil- 
dren," and God will hear that cry. As 1 was coming out of a daily 
prayer-meeting in one of our Western cities, a mother came up to me 
and said, "I want to have you see my husband, and ask him to come 
to Christ." I took out my memorandum book, and I put down his 
name. She says: "I want to have you go and see him." I knew 
the name, and that it was a learned judge; and so I said to her: "I 
can't argue with him. He is a good deal older than I am, and it 
would be out of place. Then I am not much for infidel argument." 
"Well, Mr. Moody," she says, "that ain't what he wants. He's got 
enough of that. Just ask him to come to the Savior." She urged 
me so hard, and so strong, that I consented to go. I went up to the 
office where the judge was doing business, *and told him what I had 
come for. He laughed at me. "You are very foolish," he said, and 
began to argue with me. I said: "I don't think it will be profitable 
for me to hold an argument with you. I have just one favor I want 
to ask of you; and that is; that when you are converted you will let 
me know." "Yes," said he, "I will do that. When I am converted 
I will let you know," — with a good deal of sarcasm. I thought the 
prayers of that wife would be answered, if mine were not. A year 
and a half after, I was in that city; and a servant came to my door 
and said: "There is a man in the drawing room." I found the 
judge there. He said, "I promised I would let you know when I 
was converted." I had heard it from other lips; but I wanted to 
hear it from his own. He said his wife had gone out to a meeting 
one night, and he was home alone; and while he was sitting there 
by the fire, he thought: " Supposing my wife is right, and my chil- 
dren are right; suppose there is a heaven and hell, and I shall be sep- 



144 THEIR FAITH. K' \ 

crated from them." His first thought was, "I don't believe a word 
of it." The second thought came: "You believe in the God that 
created you, and that the God that created you is able to teach you. 
You believe that God can give you life." "Yes, the God that "cre- 
ated me can give me life." "I was too proud to get down on my 
knees by the fire, and I said, c O God, teach me.' And as I prayed, 
I don't understand it, but it began to get very dark, and my heart 
got very heavy. I was afraid to tell my wife, and I pretended to be 
asleep. She kneeled down beside that bed, and I knew she was 
praying for me. I kept crying, 'O God, save me; O God, take 
away this burden.' But it grew darker and darker, and the load 
grew heavier and heavier. All the way to my office I kept crying, 
* O God, take away this load.' I gave my clerks a holiday, and just 
•closed my office and locked the door. I fell down on my face; I 
€ried in agony to my Lord, ' O Lord, for Christ's sake, take away 
this guilt.' I don't know how it was, but it began to grow very 
light. I said: 'I wonder if this isn't what they call conversion. I 
think I will go and ask the minister if I am not converted.' " The 
old judge said to me: "Mr. Moody, I have enjoyed life in the last 
three months more than all the others put together." The judge did 
not believe; the wife did, and God honored her faith and saved 
that man. And he went up to Springfield, 111.; and the old judge 
stood up there and told those politicians what God, for Christ's sake, 
had done for him. And now let this text sink down deep into your 
hearts: "When he saw their faith." Let us lift up our hearts to 
God in prayer, that he may give us faith. 



,** 



COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 

'* Be of good courage." Joshua 41 : 6, 7, 9. 

I shall take for my subject to-night only two words, courage and 
enthusiasm — necessary qualifications for successful work in the Lord's 
service. In this chapter I read to-night, four different times God 
tells Joshua to be of good courage; and he says that if he was of 
good courage no man should be able to stand before him, all the 
days of his life. And we read that in the evening of his life he was 
successful; and that no man was able to stand before him all his 
days. God fulfilled his promise; God kept his word. But see how 
careful God is to instruct him on this one point. Four times in one 
chapter he says to him, "Be of good courage; and then you shall 
prosper; then you shall have good success." And I have yet to find 
that God ever uses a man that is all the time looking on the dark 
side, and is all the time talking about the obstacles and looking at 
them, and is discouraged and cast down. It is not these Christians 
that go around with their head down like a bul rush, looking at the 
obstacles and talking about the darkness all the time, that God uses. 
They kill everything they touch; there is no life in them. Now, if 
we are going to succeed, we have got to be of good courage; and 
the moment we get our eyes on God and remember who he is, and 
that he has all power in heaven and earth, that it is God that com- 
mands us to work in his vineyard, then it is that we will have courage 
given us. 

Now if you just take your Bibles and look carefully through them, 
you will see the men that have left their mark behind them, the men 
that have been successful in winning souls to Christ, have all been 
men of that stamp. You will notice that when Moses commenced, after 
he had been among the Egyptians forty years, he thought the time 
had come for him to commence his work of delivering the captives, 
and he went out; and the first thing we hear is that he was looking- 
this way and that way to see if somebody saw him. He was not fit 
for God's work. God had to take him on the back side of the des- 
ert for forty years; and then God was ready to send him, and Moses 
then looked but one way. And he sent him down into Egypt. He 
had boldness now, and he goes right before the king of Egypt; and 
he had courage, and God could use him. But it took him forty years 
to learn that lesson, that he must have courage and boldness to be 
a fit vessel for the Master's use. 

145 10 



146 COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 

Again, we find Elijah on Mount Carmel, full of boldness. How 
the Lord used him! How the Lord stood by him! How the Lord 
blessed him! But when he got his eyes off the Lord, and Jezebel 
sent a message to him that she would have his life, he got afraid. He 
was not afraid of Ahab and the whole royalty, and he was not afraid 
of the whole nation. He stood on Mount Carmel alone, and see 
what courage he had! But what came over him I don't know, un- 
less it was that he got his eyes off the Lord, and when one woman 
gave him that message he got frightened, and God had to go to him 
and ask him what he was doing; and he was not fit for God's com- 
munion. 

That, I think, is the trouble with a good many of God's people. 
We get frightened, and are afraid to speak to men about their souls. 
We lack moral courage, and if we hear the voice of God speaking to 
us and saying, "Run and speak to that young man," we will go to 
him meaning to do it; and will really talk to him about everything 
else, and dare not about his soul. When we begin to invite men to 
Christ is when the work begins; and it won't begin until we have the 
courage given us, and are ready to go and speak with them about their 
souls. We read that, when the apostles were brought before the 
council, they perceived their boldness; and it made an impression 
on the council. The Lord could use them then, because they were 
fearless and bold. Look at Peter on Pentecost, when he charged 
the murder of the Son of God upon the Jews. A little while before 
he had got out of communion, and one little maid had scared him nearly 
out of his life, so that he swore he didn't know Christ. Ah ! he had 
his eyes off the Master, and the moment we get our eyes off Christ 
we get disheartened; and then God cannot use us. 

I remember a few years ago I got discouraged, and could not see 
much fruit of my work; and one morning, as I was in my study, 
cast down, one of my Sabbath-school teachers came in and wanted 
to know what I was discouraged about; and I told him, because I 
could see no result from my work. And speaking about Noah, he 
said: " By the way, did you ever study up the chapter of Noah?" 1 
felt that I knew all about that, and told him that I was familiar with 
it; and he said: "Now, if you never studied that carefully, you 
ought to do it; for I cannot tell you what a blessing it has been to- 
me." When he went out, I took down my Bible and commenced to 
read about Noah; and the thought came stealing over me: "Here 
is a man that toiled and worked a hundred years and didn't get dis- 
couraged, if he did, the Holy Ghost didn't put it on record." And 
the clouds lifted; and I got up and said, If the Lord wants me to 
work without any fruit I will work on. I went down to the noon 
prayer meeting; and when I saw the people coming to pray, I said 
to myself: "Noah worked a hundred years, and he never saw a 
prayer-meeting outside of his own family." Pretty soon a man got 



COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 147 

up right across the aisle where I was sitting, and said he had come 
from a little town where there had been a hundred uniting with the 
church of God the year before. And I thought to myself: "What 
if Noah had heard that! He preached so many, many years and 
didn't get a convert; yet he was not discouraged." Then a man got 
up right behind me, and he trembled as he said: "lam lost; I want 
you to pray for my soul." And I said: "What if Noah had heard 
that! He worked a hundred and twenty years, and never had a man 
come to him and say that; and yet he didn't get discouraged." And 
I made up my mind then that, God helping me, I would never get 
discouraged. I would do the best I could, and leave the results 
with God; and it has been a wonderful help to me. And so let me 
say to the Christians of New York that we must expect good results; 
and never get discouraged; but if we don't get good results, let us 
not look on the dark side, but keep on praying, and in the fullness 
of time the blessing of God will come. What we want is to have 
the Christians come out and take their stand. I find a great many 
professed Christians for a long time ashamed to acknowledge that 
they have been quickened. Some have said they did not like the 
idea of asking Christians to rise, as I did last evening; that it was 
putting them in a false position. Now, if we are going to be suc- 
sessful, we have got to take our stand for God, and let the world and 
every one know we are on the Lord's side. I have great respect for 
the woman that started out during the war with a poker. She heard 
the enemy were coming and went to resist them. When some one 
asked her what she could do with a poker, she said she would at least 
let them know what side she was on. And that is what we want, 
and the time is coming when the line must be drawn in this city, 
and those on Christ's side must take their stand; and the moment 
we come out boldly and acknowledge Christ then it is that men will 
begin to inquire what they must do to be saved. 

Then there is a class of people that are not warm enough. 1 
don't think a little enthusiasm would hurt the church, at the pres- 
ent time. I think we need it. I know the world will cry out 
against it; business men will cry out against religious enthusiasm. 
But let railroad stocks go up fifteen or twenty per cent., and see what 
a revival there would be in business. If there should be a sudden 
advance in stock, see if there wouldn't be enthusiasm on 'Change to- 
morrow. Let there be a sudden change in business, and see if there 
isn't a good deal of enthusiasm on the street. We can have enthusi- 
asm in business; we can have enthusiasm in politics, and no one 
complains of that. A man can have enthusiasm in everything else ; 
but the moment that a little fire gets into the church they raise the 
cry, " Ah, enthusiasm — false excitement — I am afraid of it." I do 
not want false excitement; but I do think we want a little fire, a 
little holy enthusiasm. But these men will raise the cry, "Zeal with- 



148 COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 

out knowledge." I had a good deal rather have zeal without knowl- 
edge than knowledge without zeal; and it won't hurt us to have a 
little more of this enthusiasm and zeal in the Lord's work. I saw 
more zeal when I was in Princeton last Sunday than I have in many 
a year. I was talking with the students there about their souls, and 
after I had been talking for some time, quite a group of young men 
gathered around me; and the moment that one of them made a sur- 
render and said, "Well, I will accept Christ," it seemed as if there 
were twenty-five hands pressed right down to shake hands with him. 
That is what we want — men that will rejoice to hear of the conver- 
sion of men. Although I don't admire his ideas, I do admire the en- 
thusiasm of that man Garibaldi. It is reported that when he marched 
toward Rome in 1867, they took him up and threw him into prison; 
and he sat right down and wrote to his comrades: "If fifty Garibaldis 
are thrown into prison, let Rome be free!" That is the spirit. 
Who is Garibaldi? That is nothing. "If fifty Garibaldis are 
thrown into prison, let Rome be free!" That is what we want in 
the cause of Christ. We have got to work, and not be loitering at 
our ease. And then the question of dignity comes up. We have 
got to lay all that aside, and we have got to be helpers. What differ- 
ence does it make whether we are hewers of wood or carriers of 
water, while the temple of God is being erected. Yes, let us have 
an enthusiasm in the church of God. If we had it in a few of the 
churches in New York, I believe it would be like a resurrection. 
The people would say: "What has come over this man? he ain't like 
the same man he was two months ago." We want to have them 
say: " The Son of God is dearer to us than our money. The Son of 
God is dearer to us than our families. The Son of God is dearer to 
us than our position in society." 

Let us do anything that the work of God may go on; and when 
we get there, God will bless us. Why, it says in the Bible, " One 
shall chase a thousand." We have not got many of that kind in our 
churches; I wish we had more of them. It says, " Two shall put ten 
thousand to flight." Now, if a few should lay hold of God in this 
way, see what a great army ere long will be saved in this city! 
But then we have got to be men after God's own heart. They can- 
not be lukewarm. They have got to be on fire with the cause of 
Christ. We have got to have more of this enthusiasm that will carry 
us into the Lord's work. If there is going to be a great revival in 
New York, it ain't going to be in this hall. It has got to be done by 
one and by another going around and talking to their neighbors. 
There isn't a skeptic, there isn't a drunkard, but what can be re- 
claimed, if we come with desire in our hearts. We mustn't go around 
professionally, if we want to see any result. There is a story told in 
history, in the ninth century I believe, of a young man that came 
up with a little handful of men to attack a king who had a great army 



COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 149 

of 3,000 men. The young man had only 500; and the king sent a 
messenger to the young man saying that he need not fear to surren- 
der, for he would treat him mercifully. The young man called up 
one of his soldiers and said, " Take this dagger and drive it to your 
heart;" and the soldier took the dagger and drove it to his heart. 
And calling up another, he said to him, "Leap into yonder chasm." 
and the man leaped into the chasm. The young man then said to the 
messenger: "Go back and tell your king I have got 500 men like 
these. We will die, but we will never surrender. And tell your 
king another thing, that I will have him chained with my dog inside 
of a few hours." And when the king heard that, he did not dare to 
meet them, and his army fled before them like chaff before the wind; 
and within twenty-four hours he had that king chained with his dog. 

That is the kind of zeal we want. " We will die, but we will 
never surrender." We will work until Jesus comes; and then we will 
rise with him. Oh, if men are willing to die for patriotism, why can 
they not have the same zeal for Christ? All that Abraham Lincoln 
had to do was to call for men, and how speedily they came. When 
he called for 600,000 men, how quick they sprung up all over 
the nation. Isn't souls worth more than this republic? Isn't souls 
worth more than this government? Don't we want 600,000 men? 
If 600 men should come forward, whose hearts were right red-hot 
for the Son of God, we would be able to see what mighty results 
would follow. "One man shall chase a thousand, and two shall put 
ten thousand to flight." During our war, the generals that were all 
the time on the defensive never succeeded. The generals that were 
successful were the generals that were on the aggressive. Some of 
our churches think they are doing remarkably well if they hold their 
membership; and they think, if they have thirty or forty conversions 
in that church during the year, that that is remarkable work. They 
think it is enough to supply the places of those who have died, and 
those who have wandered away during the past. It seems to me 
we ought to bring thousands and thousands to Christ. I say the time 
has come for us to have a war on the side of aggression. There 
may be barriers in our path, but God can remove them. There may 
be a mountain in our way, but God can take us over the mountain. 
There may be difficulties in the way, but he can overcome them. 
Our God is above them all; and if the Church of God is ready to ad- 
vance, all obstacles will be removed. No man ever sent by God 
ever failed, but self must be lost sight of. We must be willing to 
lay down our lives for the cause of Christ. 

When I was going to Europe in 1867, my friend Mr. Stuart, of 
Philadelphia, said: " Be sure to be at the General Assembly in Edin- 
burgh, in June. I was there last year," said he, " and it did me a 
world of good." He said that a returned missionary from India was 
invited to speak to the General Assembly on the wants of India. 



150 COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 

This old missionary, after a brief address, told the pastors who were 
present to go home and stir up their churches, and send young men 
to India to preach the gospel. He spoke with such earnestness that 
after a while he fainted, and they carried him from the hall. When 
he recovered he asked where he was, and they told him the circum- 
stances under which he had been brought there. " Yes," he said, "I 
was making a plea for India, and I didn't quite finish my speech, did 
I?" After being told that he did not, he said: "Well, take me back 
and let me finish it." But they said, " No! you will die in the at- 
tempt." "Well," said he, "I will die if I don't;" and the old man 
asked again that they would allow him to finish his plea. When he 
was taken back, the whole congregation stood as one man; and as 
they brought him on the' platform, with a trembling voice he said: 
"Fathers and mothers of Scotland, is it true that you will not let 
your sons go to India? I spent twenty-five years of my life there; 
I lost my health, and I have come back with sickness and shattered 
health. If it is true that we have no strong grandsons to go to 
India, I will pack up what I have and be off to-morrow; and I will 
let those heathen know that if I cannot live for them, I will die for 
them." 

The world will say that that old man was enthusiastic. Well, that 
is just what we want. No doubt that is what they said of the 
Son of God, when he was down here. Oh, that God may baptize us 
to-night with the spirit of enthusiasm! that he may anoint us to- 
night with the Holy Ghost! Let me say to some of you men — I see 
some gray locks here, who, I have no doubt, are saying: " I wish I 
was young again; I would like to help in this work; I would like to 
work for the Lord." When we went to London there was an old 
woman eighty-five years old, who came to the meetings and said she 
wanted a hand in that work. She was appointed to a district, and 
called on all classes of people. She went to places where we would 
probably have been put out, and told the people of Christ. There 
were none that could resist her. When the old woman of eighty- 
five years old came to them and offered to pray for them, they all 
received her kindly — Catholics, Jews, Gentiles, all. That is enthusi- 
asm — that is what we want in New York. If you cannot give a day 
to this work, give an hour; or if not an hour, five minutes. If you 
have not strength to do anything personally, you can pray for 
this work. Now, it is a good deal better to do that than it is to 
stand off criticising. Some will say: "Oh, I heard my grandfather say 
how such things should be done. This is not managed right to be 
successful." And they stand off and criticise and find fault; and we 
will never succeed as long as they do this. All should work, and ask 
God's guidance. 

Once, when a great fire broke out at midnight, and people thought 
that all the inmates had been taken out, away up there in the fifth 






COURAGE AND ENTHUSIASM. 151 

story was seen a little child crying for help. Up went a ladder, and 
soon a fireman was seen ascending to the spot. As he neared the 
second story, the flames burst in fury from the windows; and the 
multitude almost despaired of the rescue of the child. The brave 
man faltered, and a comrade at the bottom cried out, "Cheer! " and 
cheer upon cheer arose from the crowd. Up the ladder he went, and 
saved the child, because they cheered him. If you cannot go into 
the heat of the battle yourself, if you cannot go into the harvest 
field and work day after day, you can cheer those that are working 
for the Master. I see many old people in their old days get crusty 
and sour, and they discourage every one they meet by their fault- 
finding. That is not what we want. If we make a mistake, come 
and tell us of it; and we will thank you. You don't know how much 
you may do by just speaking kindly to those that are willing to 
work. 

I remember when I was a boy, I went several miles from home 
with an older brother. That seemed to me the longest visit of my 
life. It seemed that I was then further away from home than I had ever 
been before, or have ever been since. While we were walking 
down the street, we saw an old man coming toward us, and my 
orother said: "There is a man that will give you a cent. He gives 
every new boy that comes into this town a cent." That was my first 
visit to the town ; and when the old man got opposite to us he looked 
around; and my brother not wishing me to lose the* cent, and to re- 
mind the old man that I had not received it, told him that I was a 
new boy in the town. The old man, taking off my hat, placed his 
trembling hand on my head, and told me I had a Father in heaven. 
It was a kind, simple act, but I feel the pressure of the old man's 
hand upon my head to-day. 

Now you can all do something in this work of saving souls — -that 
is what we have come to this city for. There is not a mother, father, 
nor wife, there is not a young man in all the city, but what ought to 
be in sympathy with this work. We have come here to try to save 
souls. I never heard of one that was brought to Christ that it in- 
jured them. Oh, let us pray for the Spirit of God. Let us pray 
that this spirit of criticism and fault-finding may be all laid aside, 
and that we may be of one spirit, as they were on the day of 
Pentecost, 



TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. 

"To every man his work." Mabk 13:34. 

I want to call your attention to a verse you will find in the 13th 
chapter of Mark, part of the 34th verse — " To every man his work." 
" For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his 
house and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, 
and commanded the porter to watch." Now, by reading that verse 
carefully it don't read, "to every man some work," or "to every man 
a work;" but, "to every man his work." And I believe, if the truth 
was known, that every man and woman in this assembly has a work 
laid out for them to do; that every man's life is a plan of the Al- 
mighty, and way back in the councils of eternity God laid out a work 
for each one of us. There is no man living that can do the work 
that God has got for me to do. No one can do it but myself. And 
if the work ain't done, we will have to answer for it when we stand 
before God's bar. For it says: "Every man shall be brought unto 
judgment, and every one shall give an account of the deeds done in 
the body." And it seems to me that every one of us ought to take 
this question home to-night: "Well, am I doing the work that God has 
for me to do?" God has got a work for every one of us to do. Now 
in the parable the man who had two talents had the same reward as 
the man who had five talents. He heard the same words as the man 
who had five talents. " "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, 
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The men that take good care 
of the talents that God has loaned them, he always gives them more. 
But if we take the talent that God has given us, and lay it away care- 
fully in a napkin and bury it away, God will take even that from us. 
God don't want a man that has got one talent to do the work of a 
man that has got ten. All a man has got to answer for is the one 
that God has given him. If we were all of us doing the work that 
God has got for us to do, don't you see how the work of the Lord 
would advance? I believe in what John Wesley used to say, "All 
at it, and always at it;" and that is what the church wants to-day. 

But men say: "I don't believe in these revivals; it's only tempo- 
rary, it only lasts a few minutes." Yes, if I thought it was only to 
last a few minutes, I would say "Amen" to everything they say. My 
prayer has been for years that God will let me die when the spirit of 
revival dies out in my heart; and I don't want to live any longer, 
if I can't be used to some purpose. What are we all down in this 
world of sickness and sorrow for, unless it is to work for the Son of 
152 



TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. 153 

God, and improve the talents he has given us. But some men are 
not satisfied with the talents they have, but are always wishing for 
some one else's talent. Now, that is all wrong. It is contrary to 
the spirit of Christ. Instead of wishing for some one else's talent, 
let us make the best use of the talents God has given us. Now, 
there ain't a father or a mother here but would think it a great mis- 
fortune if their children shouldn't grow any for the next ten or fif- 
teen years. That little boy there, if he shouldn't grow any for ten 
or fifteen years, his mother would say, "It is a great calamity." I 
know some men of my acquaintance who make the same prayers they 
made fifteen or twenty years ago. They are like a horse in a tread- 
mill — it is always the same old story of their experiences when they 
were converted, and going round and round. If you had a child 
that was deaf and dumb, you would think it a great misfortune. Do 
you ever think how many dumb children God has got? You speak 
about political matters, and they can talk. You ask them what do 
they think about General Grant's third term; and hear them talk. 
You ask them about stocks and bonds; and hear them talk. You 
talk to them about the hard times in New York; and see if they 
can't talk. But you ask them to speak about the Son of God, and 
they say: "O no, I can't speak about that. Please excuse me!" 
Either they don't believe, or they have gone like the third man and 
buried their talent; and they say, "The Lord is a hard master." I 
remember once a party of gentlemen speaking of this parable that I 
read, and asking a deaf man: " What do you think of this man's 
hiding his talent, and about the justice of his reward?" The deaf 
man replied: "I don't know anything about the justice of his reward,, 
but I know he is a liar. The Lord isn't a hard master; he told lies 
when he said that." And so these men who bury their talents, they 
think the Lord is a hard master; but the men who are using their 
talents, they don't think the Lord is a hard master. 

Let us do all the business we can. If we can't be a lighthouse,, 
let us be a tallow candle. There used to be a period when the peo- 
ple came up to meeting bringing their candles with them. The first 
one perhaps wouldn't make a great illumination, but when two or 
three got there, there would be more light. If the people of this 
city should do that now, if each one should come here with his can- 
dle, don't you think there would be a good deal of light? Let all 
the gas be put out in this hall, and one solitary candle would give a 
little light here. If we can't be a lighthouse, let us be a tallow can- 
dle. Some one said, "I can't be anything more, than a farthing 
rushlight." Well, if you can't be more be that, that is well enough. Be 
all you can. What makes the Dead Sea dead? Because it is all 
the time receiving, never giving out anything. Why is it that many 
Christians are cold? Because they are all the time receiving, never 
giving out anything. You go every Sunday and hear good sermons, 



154 TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. 

and think that is enough. You are all the time receiving these grand 
truths, but never give them out. When you hear it, go and scatter 
the sacred truth abroad. Instead of having one minister to preach 
to a thousand people, this thousand ought to take a sermon and 
spread it till it reaches those that never go to church or chapel. In- 
stead of having a few, we ought to have thousands using the precious 
talents that God has given them. 

Now, Andrew got the reputation of bringing people to Christ. He 
went about it in the right way; he began right. I imagine that when 
Christ wanted these mighty deeds done, he went out and hunted up 
Andrew. Andrew inquired of the people, "Have you seen anything 
of Peter?" And when he found him, he brought him to Christ. 
Little did Andrew know of the importance of the day when he 
brought Peter to Christ. Little did he think that on that day he did 
the greatest act of his life. What joy must have filled his heart 
when he saw three thousand brought under the influence of the Spirit 
by that holy man. Oh, you cannot tell what results will follow, if you 
just improve the talent God has given you by bringing one Simon 
Peter to Christ. Then we read that when the Greeks came and 
wanted to see Jesus, Andrew met them and brought them all to 
Christ. Andrew had a reputation of bringing sinners to God. That 
is a good reputation. I would rather have that reputation than any 
other. Oh, the joy there is in bringing people to Christ! This is 
what we all can do, if we will. If God has not given us but half a 
talent, let us make good use of that. When God told the people to 
take their seats by fifties, he told Philip to get food for them. 
"What," says Philip, "feed them with this little loaf? Why, there is 
not more than enough for the first man." "Yes, go and feed them 
with that." Philip thought that was a very small amount for such a 
multitude of hungry men. He broke off a piece for the first man, 
and didn't miss it; a piece for the second man, and didn't miss it; a 
piece for the third man, and didn't miss it. He was making good 
use of the loaf, and God kept increasing it. That is what the Lord 
wants to do with us. He will give us just as many talents as we can 
take care of. 

There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the 
Lord; but few of us willing to do little things. The mighty sermon 
on regeneration was preached to one man. There are many who are 
willing to preach to thousands, but are not willing to take their seat 
beside one soul, and lead that soul to the blessed Jesus. We must 
get down to personal effort — this bringing one by one to the Son of 
God. We can find no better example of this than in the life of Christ 
himself. Look at that wonderful sermon that he preached to that 
lone woman at the well of Samaria. He was tired and weary, but 
he had time and the heart to preach to her. This is but one of many 
instances in the life of the Master from which we may learn a precious 



TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. 155 

lesson. If the Son of God had time to preach to one soul, cannot 
every one of us go and do the same? If people, instead of coming 
to these meetings, folding up their arms and enjoying themselves, 
without personal effort, would wake up to the fact that they have a 
work to do, what a wonderful work could be done! It is not enough 
to come to these meetings; we want ten thousand workers in New 
York city. We want ten thousand men and women that are willing 
to say, " Lord, here am I, use me." Ten thousand of such people 
would revolutionize this city in a little while. Look at the work of 
the mighty Wesley. The world never saw a hundred such men liv- 
ing at the same time. The trouble is, we are afraid to speak to men 
about their souls. Let us ask God to give us grace to overcome this 
man-fearing spirit. There is a wife, but she dare not speak to her 
husband about his soul. There is a father that dare not speak to a 
son about his soul. What we want to do is to speak to our neighbors 
about these things. We call it a little work, but let me say to you 
it is a great deal. If we would do this, we might turn ten thousand 
to the Son of God. 

I remember hearing of a person that was always trying to do some 
great thing for the Lord; and because he could not do a great thing, 
he never did anything. There are a great many who would be will- 
ing to do great things, if they could come up and have their names 
heralded through the press. I remember hearing of a man's dream, 
in which he imagined that when he died he was taken by the angels 
to a beautiful temple. After admiring it for a time, he discovered 
that one stone was missing. All finished but just one little stone; 
that was left out. He said to the angel, " What is this stone left 
out for?" The angel replied: "That was left out for you; but you 
wanted to do great things, and so there was no room left for you." 
He was startled, and awoke, and resolved that he would become a 
worker for God; and that man always worked faithfully after that. 

Now, my friends, we must not expect to do great things. We 
must take anything that comes to us; we must let the Lord use us 
as he sees fit. I remember once, while preaching at a meeting, of 
noticing in the congregation a lady who had a class in a mission 
school. I knew that it was the time for them to meet, and I won- 
dered what she was there for. When I got home, I said: "How did 
you happen to be at the meeting this afternoon? What did you do 
with all those little lambs? Haven't you a class that meets to-day?" 
" Yes," she said; " but I only have five little boys, and I didn't think 
it would matter if I didn't teach them to-day." " Have you five little 
boys?" "Yes." "How do you know but among those little boys 
there may be a Knox; there may be a Wesley, or a Whitefield, or a 
Bunyan? There may be a man there who will go out and revolu- 
tionize the world." My friends, in that little boy with his tattered 
clothes and uncombed hair, there may be a Martin Luther, if you 



156 TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. 

could but lead him to Christ. If you have five little children come 
to you, thank God for that, and start with your work. I heard, some 
time ago, of a young lady that went out to a boarding-school. Her 
parents were very wealthy, and sent her to the best school they could 
find. They were very anxious that their daughter should shine in 
the highest circle of society, that she should become refined and 
educated. Among her associates at school was a lady who loved 
and worked for Christ. By constant labor she won this young girl's 
heart, and pleaded with her to become a Christian. She succeeded, 
and the young lady became a worker in the vineyard of the Lord. 
She taught her the luxury of working for Christ. She labored with 
her schoolmates, and God used her in winning quite a number of 
young ladies in that school to Christ. I have known a great many 
ministers who wanted to know how they could keep their congrega- 
tion out of the world. Give them so much to do that they won't 
have time to attend to cherish worldly influences. This young lady 
of whom I was speaking came home, and her father and mother 
wanted her to shine in the fashionable society. No, she said she had 
got something better than that. She went to the Sabbath-school 
superintendent, and said to him, " Can you give me a class in the 
Sunday-school?" He was surprised that this young lady should want 
that. He told her that he had no class that he could give her then. 
She went away with a resolve to do what she could outside of the 
school. One day, as she was walking up the street, she say a little 
boy running out of a shoemaker's shop, and behind him was the old 
shoemaker, chasing him, with a wooden last in his hand. He had 
not ran far until the last was thrown at him, and he was struck in the 
back. The boy stopped and began to cry. The Spirit of the Lord 
touched that young lady's heart, and she went to where he was. She 
stepped up to him and asked him if he was hurt. He told her it was 
none of her business. She went to work then to win that boy's con- 
fidence. She asked him if he went to school. He said, "No." 
"Well, why don't you go to school?" " Don't want to." She asked 
him if he would not like to go to Sunday-school. "If you will come," 
she said, "I will tell you beautiful stories, and read nice books." She 
coaxed and pleaded with him, and at last said that if he would con- 
sent to go she would meet him on the corner of a street which they 
should agree upon. He at last consented; and the next Sunday, 
true to his promise, he waited for her at the place designated. She 
took him by the hand and led him into the Sabbath-school. " Can 
you give me a place to teach this little boy?" she asked of the super- 
intendent. He looked at the boy, but they didn't have any such look- 
ing little ones in the school. A place was found, however, and she 
sat down in the corner and tried to win that soul for Christ. Many 
would look upon that with contempt, but she had got something to 
do for the Master. The little boy had never heard anybody sing so 



TO EVEEY MAN HIS WORK. 157 

sweetly before. When he went home he was asked where he had 
been. " Been among the angels," he told his mother. He said he 
had been to the Protestant Sabbath-school; but his father and mother 
told him he must not go there any more or he would get a flogging. 
The next Sunday he went, and when he got home he got the prom- 
ised flogging. He went the second time and got a flogging, and also 
a third time, with the same result. At last he said to his father: "I 
wish you would flog me before I go, and then I won't have to think 
of it when I am there." The father said: " If you go to the Sabbath- 
school again I will kill you." It was the father's custom to send his 
son out on the street to sell articles to the passers-by; and he told the 
boy that he might have the profits of what he sold on Saturday. The 
little fellow hastened to the young lady's house and said to her: 
" Father said that he would give me every Saturday to myself; and 
if you will just teach me then, I will come to your house every Sat- 
urday afternoon." I wonder how many young ladies there are that 
would give up their Saturday afternoons just to teach one boy the 
way into the kingdom or God. Every Saturday afternoon that little 
boy was there at her house, and she tried to tell him the way to 
Christ. She labored with him, and at last the light of God's Spirit 
broke upon his heart. One day, while he was selling his wares at 
the railroad station, a train of cars approached unnoticed and passed 
over both his legs. A physician was summoned, and the first thing 
after he arrived, the little sufferer looked up into his face, and said, 
"Doctor, will I live to get home?" "No," said the doctor, "you 
are dying." "Will you tell my mother and father that I died a 
Christian?" They bore home the boy's corpse, and with it the last 
message that he died a Christian. Oh, what a noble work was that 
young lady's in saving that little wanderer! How precious the re- 
membrance to her! When she goes to heaven, she will not be a 
stranger there. He will take her by the hand and lead her to the 
throne of Christ. She did the work cheerfully. Oh, may God teach 
us what our work is, that we may do it for his glory. 

It is the greatest pleasure of living to win souls to Christ, and it is 
a pleasure that angels can't enjoy. It is sometimes a wonder to me 
that God doesn't take the work out of the church, and give it to the 
angels. If the redeemed saints could come by the bar, I sometimes 
think they would rejoice in coming back here to have the privilege 
of leading one more soul to Christ. Isn't it high time that the church 
got awake from its midnight slumber? It is time the work was com- 
menced; and when the Spirit of God revives it, shan't we go and do 
it? Are there not five thousand Christians in this hall, and ain't 
there some one among them that can lead a soul to Christ within the 
next week? If we work, what a great army can be brought in, if we 
are only faithful! I want to say to the Christians here that there is 
one rule I have followed that has helped me wonderfully. I made it 



158 TO EVERY MAN HIS WORK. 

a rule that I wouldn't let a day pass without speaking to some one 
about their soul's salvation ; and it they didn't hear the gospel from 
the lips of others, there will be 365 in a year that shall hear the gos- 
pel from my lips. There are five thousand Christians here to-night; 
can't they say, "We won't let a day pass without speaking a word 
to some one about the cause of Christ?" 

At Philadelphia, when we were holding meetings in the gas- 
works, there was a man who came to our very first meeting. He was 
very much interested, and said, " I will try and see if I can't lead 
some of the men in my shop to Christ." He began to talk with them. 
There were 175 men on the night-watch, and when I left they said 
25 out of the 175 had been converted; and every night, at midnight 
— that is the hour they have what might be called their midnight 
dinner — and every night, at midnight, they have a prayer-meeting. 
When you and I sleep to-night all these young converts speak and 
pray, and it looks now as if every man in the gas-works was going 
to be brought to Christ. 

When we were in Belfast, there was a man who heard about lead- 
ing souls to Christ. He began by talking to his wife, and to his 
servant, and to his children; and just as we were leaving Belfast 
they were very much interested, but not converted. He came down 
to Dublin — broke up his home, left his business, and came to Dublin. 
One night he came to me very joyous, and he says, "My wife has 
been converted." A little while after, he came and said, " My 
younger son has been converted." and a little while after, he said, 
"My oldest son has been converted." And now the whole family is 
in the ark. And he came over to Manchester, and he came up to 
London; and now perhaps in all Belfast there is not one that works 
harder than that whole family. Look at this man's success. He 
found his work was right there in his own household; and if the 
fathers, and mothers, and sisters, and wives, and brothers, will try to 
bring the members of their families to Christ, and cry, "Oh, God, 
teach me what my work is" — the Spirit of God will surely tell them 
what their work is; and then if they are ready to go and do it, there 
will be thousands converted in this city in a few days. Oh, may the 
Spirit of the Lord come upon us to-night, and may every one of us 
be taught by the Holy Ghost what our work is, and may we be ready 
to do it. 



LOVE AND SYMPATHY. 

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I 
am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." I. Corinthians 13: 1. 

I want to follow up the subject we have had during the past week 
in the noon prayer-meeting. We have had for our subject " Prayer;" 
and in these meetings, a good many of you will remember, we have 
had the subject " Work." Now we want to put the two together, 
" Pray and work." That is really about all there is to it. It is to 
pray and to Work. I am in hopes we will be ready next Sabbath to 
go to work with individuals. I am in hopes there will be thousands 
of Christians that will just be trying to lead some soul to Christ. 
Now there are two qualifications which we need in order to be suc- 
cessful fishermen of men, in order to be successful in winning souls 
to Christ. Some of you will remember I have taken the subjects, 
"Courage and Enthusiasm." I want to take two others, " Love and 
Sympathy." I want to call your attention to the 13th chapter of 
Corinthians, where it says that, "If I speak with the tongues of men 
and of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass 
or a tinkling cymbal;" and if we even give our bodies to be burned 
and yet if we haven't real love in our hearts, our work will go for 
naught. I want to call your attention to a passage in Titus, in the 
2d chapter of Titus, two verses: "But speak thou the things which 
become sound doctrine: that the aged men may be sober, grave, 
temperate, sound in faith, in charity and in patience." 

If love don't prompt all work, all work is for naught. If a man in 
the church ain't sound in his faith, we draw our ecclesiastical sword 
and cut his head right off; but he may not be sound in love, yet we 
do nothing in his case. The great want in our churches is the want 
of love in them. If we had more love we would do better, for love 
begets love; and then, too, hate begets hate. You often hear a man 
say that such and such a man is the meanest man in town. Now the 
other man may have had no ill-feeling toward the speaker; but if 
he hears of the remark he begins to think badly of the one who abused 
him and soon learns to hate him. Now, if a man should hear that 
another man loves him and has spoken well of him, his love will 
grow too. Christ tells all men, "By this shall all men know — have 
love one to another." This love will be the badge of the Christian, 
the badge by which to tell who they are, — like the badges the ushers 
wear here. Without love, we are not really converted to the Church 
159 



160 LOVE AND SYMPATHY. 

of God. When we are truly converted, we love all things and all 
men better than ever before. The morning I was converted, I went 
out doors, and I fell in love with the bright sun shining over the 
earth; I never loved the sun before. And when I heard the birds 
singing their sweet songs, I fell in love with the birds, like the Scotch 
lassie who stood on the hills of her native land, breathing the sweet 
air, and when asked why she did it, said, "I love the Scotch air." If 
the church was filled with love, it could do so much more. 

I am tired of the word duty; tired of hearing duty, duty, duty. 
Men go to church because it is their duty. They go to prayer-meet- 
ing because it is their duty. You can never reach a man's heart if 
you talk to him because it is your duty. Suppose I told my wife I 
loved her because it was my duty — what would she say? Once every 
year I go up to Connecticut to visit my aged mother. Suppose, when 
I go next time, I tell her that I knew she was old and that she was 
living on borrowed time; that I knew she had always done a great 
deal for me, and that I came to see her every year because it was my 
duty. Don't you think she would say, "Well, then, my son, you 
needn't take the trouble to come again?" Let us strike for a higher 
plane. God loved the world when it was full of sinners and those 
who broke his law. If he did so, can't we do it, and love our fellow- 
men? If the Savior could die for the world, can't we work for it? 
The churches would soon be filled if outsiders could find that people 
in them loved them when they came ; if the elders and deacons were 
glad to see them, and were ready to take them by the hand and wel- 
come them. Such things would draw sinners. Actions like these 
speak louder than words. We do not want to talk of love and not 
show it in our deeds; we want something more than tongue love. 

If our heart goes out towards them and we love them, they will 
be drawn toward us, and we will win them to Christ. We must win 
them to us first, and then we can win them to Christ. The last time 
I heard Dr. Arnott speak — he died soon afterward — he used a 
homely illustration. Said he: "Those of you who were brought up 
on a farm will understand it. When you have to wean a calf, you 
have to teach it how to drink. You take a bucket of milk, and then 
you put your fingers in the calf's mouth; and when he has got a good 
hold, you pull his nose right down into the milk. Then you slip your 
fingers out, and then the calf is drinking before he knows anything 
about it. So," said he, " you must get the people to love you, and 
then turn them over to Christ." We must be more lovely ourselves, 
and show the people that we love them. In our city, a few years 
ago, there was a little boy who went to one of the mission Sunday- 
schools. His father moved to another part of the city, about five 
miles away; and every Sunday that boy came past thirty or forty 
Sunday-schools to the one he attended. And one Sunday a lady, 
who was out collecting scholars for a Sunday-school, met him and 



LOVE AND SYMPATHY. 161 

asked him why he went so far, past so many schools. "There are 
plenty of others," said she, "just as good." He said, "They may be 
as good, but they are not so good for me." "Why not?" she asked. 
" Because they love a fellow over there," he answered. Ah! love 
•won him. "Because they love a fellow over there!" How easy 
it is to reach people through love! Sunday-school teachers should 
win the affections of their scholars, if they wish to lead them to Christ. 

Those who are successful in winning the affections of men are suc- 
cessful in leading them to Christ. 

In London, in 1872, one Sunday morning a minister said to me: 
"I want you to notice that family there in one of the front seats, and 
when we go home I want to tell you their story." When we got 
home I asked him for the story, and he said, "All that family were 
won by a smile." "Why," said I, "how's that?" "Well," said he, 
"as I was walking down a street one day I saw a child at a window; 
it smiled, and I smiled, and we bowed. So it was the second time; 
I bowed, she bowed. It was not long before there was another child, 
and I had got' in a habit of looking and bowing; and pretty soon 
the group grew, and at last, as I went by, a lady was with them. I 
didn't know what to do. I didn't want to bow to her, but I knew 
the children expected it; and so I bowed to them all. And the 
mother saw I was a minister, because I carried a Bible every Sunday 
morning. So the children followed me the next Sunday and found I 
was a minister. And they thought I was the greatest preacher, and 
their parents must hear me. A minister who is kind to a child and 
gives him a pat on the head, why the children will think he is the 
greatest preacher in the world. Kindness goes a great way. And 
to make a long story short, the father and mother and five children 
were converted; and they are going to join our church next Sunday." 
Won to Christ by a smile! We must get the wrinkles out of our 
brows, and we must have smiling faces. The world is after the best 
thing; and we must show them that we have got something better 
than they have got. I thought last night how I wished I knew the 
young men better. I have got something better than infidelity. We 
must convince them of this, or those that live out of Christ will stum- 
ble over us into the last world. Men are after the best thing every- 
where; and we must show the world that we have got the best thing, 
before we win the world. If a man is after a horse, he wants to get 
the best horse he can for the money. If a lady goes shopping, she 
wants to get the best ribbon she can for the money. If a man wants 
a coat, he wants to get the best coat he can for the money. This is 
the law the world around. If we show men that religion is better 
than anything else, we shall win the world; but we cannot do it if 
we are cold and lukewarm, and kinder the lashings of conscience all 
the time. 

11 



162 LOVE AND SYMPATHY. 

We won't win the world to Christ if we are cold and lukewarm * 
but if the love of God beats in warm pulsations in our hearts, and we 
show them we are full of love and sympathy for them, how easy it 
will be to win souls to Christ! I like to see in a Christian's face 
the light that comes down from the celestial hills of glory. To love 
those that abuse them — that is what the Master did; and if we have 
his Spirit, we will certainly love those that don't love us. I don't 
think there is a man in New York whose heart is so hard but that 
love will break it. A friend of mine, who had a large Sabbath - 
school, had a theory never to turn a boy out of Sabbath-school on 
account of bad conduct. "I considered," said he, that those boys 
who behave badly in Sunday-school, had not had the advantages of 
a good bringing up, and for that very reason ought not to be turned 
out. I found out," said he, "that it was one thing to have a theory 
and another thing to put it in practice." For he had a boy come into 
his Sunday-school that nearly upset all his practice. He put him under 
one teacher; and nothing could be done with him; he put him under 
another teacher, and nothing could be done with him; he put him 
under another teacher, and nothing could be done with him. And he 
made up his mind to expel him from the school, and do it publicly; 
and let all the school know that the boy was expelled. But there 
came a lady teacher to him who said, " I wish you would let me have 
that boy." "But," said he, "he is such a bad boy; he uses such vul- 
gar language. All those men can't do anything with him; and I 
think, I am sure, you can't." The lady said; "I am not doing much 
for Christ, and it may be that I can win him." But she was a lady of 
refined society, and he thought, "Surely, she won't be willing to have 
patience with that boy." He gave her the boy, and, he said, for a 
few Sundays he behaved very well; but one Sunday he behaved 
badly, and she corrected him, and he up and spat in her face. She 
quietly took her handkerchief and wiped her face. I don't know 
what his name was, but we will call him Johnny. "Johnny," she 
says, "I wish you would go home with me. 1 want to talk with you." 
"Well, I won't," he said; "I won't be seen on the street with you; 
and what's more, I ain't never coming to this Sunday-school any 
more." " Well," she says, " If you won't walk home with me, let me 
walk home with you." No, he said, he wouldn't be seen on the 
street with her; and he was not coming to that dirty old Sunday- 
school any more. She knew if she was going to reach that boy she 
must do it then; and she thought she would try. She thought she 
would just bear on that curiosity chord. Sometimes, when you can't 
reach people in any other way, you can do it by exciting their curiosity. 
She said to him: " If }^ou will come to my house, next Tuesday morn- 
ing, I shan't be there, but if you will go there and ring the front 
door bell, and tell the servant there is a little bundle on the bureau 
for you, she will give it to you." The little fellow said he wouldn't 



LOVE AND SYMPATHY. 163 

come. She thought he might change his mind. He thought it over, 
and he thought he would just like to know what there was in that 
bundle. And he went up to the house Tuesday morning, and the 
bundle was handed to him; and there was a little vest in it, and a 
little necktie that she had made with her own hands; and a kind note, 
stating that ever since he had been in her class she had been praying 
for him every morning and every evening, and she told him how she 
loved him and cared for him. The next morning he was there, 
bright and early, before she was up. The servant came up and told 
her that that boy was in the drawing-room, and wanted to see her. 
She went down and found the little fellow sitting on the sofa, weep- 
ing. She spoke to him kindly, and said, "What is the trouble?' 
And he says, "Oh, teacher, I have had no peace since I got that note 
from you." And she got down and prayed with him, "And," said 
the superintendent, "there is not a better boy in the school. Love 
conquered him." 

The greatest infidel can be reached by love ; the greatest drunkard 
can be reached by love. Infidelity don't know anything about love. 
The religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of love. If we would be 
successful workers in his vineyard, it is the love of Christ that must 
bind us together. A few years ago I was in a town down in our 
state, the guest of a family that had a little boy about thirteen years 
old, who did not bear the family name, yet was treated like the rest. 
Every night when he retired, the lady of the house kissed him, and 
treated him in every respect like all the other children. I said to 
the lady of the house, " I don't understand it." I think he was the 
finest-looking boy I have ever seen. I said to her, "I don't under- 
stand it." She says: "I want to tell you about that boy. That boy 
is the son of a missionary. His father and mother were missionaries 
in India; but they found they had got to bring their children back 
to this country to educate them. So they gave up their mission field 
and came back to educate their children, and to find some missionary 
work to do in this country. But they were not prospered here as 
they had been in India, and the father said, "I will go back to India;" 
and the mother said: "If God has called you to go I am sure it will 
be my duty to go, and my privilege to go, and I will go with you." 
The father said: "You have never been separated from the children, 
and it will be hard for you to be separated from them; perhaps you 
had better stay and take care of them," But after praying they de- 
cided to leave their children to be educated, and they left for India. 
This lady heard of it and sent a letter to the parents, in which she 
stated if they left one child at her house she would treat it like one 
of her own children. She said the mother came and spent a few 
days at her house, and being satisfied that her boy would receive 
proper care, consented to leave him. And the night before she was 
to leave him, the missionary lady said to the Western lady: "I want 



164 



LOVE AND SYMPATHY. 



to leave my boy to-morrow morning without a tear;" said she, "I 
may never see him again." But she didn't want him to think she 
was weeping for anything she was doing for the master. The ladv 
said to herself, "She won't leave that boy without a tear." But the 
next day, when the carriage drove up to the door, the lady went up 
stairs and said she heard the mother in prayer, crying: "O God, give 
me strength for this hour. Help me to go away from my boy with- 
out a tear." When she came down there was a smile upon her face. 
She hugged him and she kissed him, but she smiled as she did it. 
She gave up all her five or six children without shedding a tear, 
went back to India, and in about a year there came a voice, " Come 
up hither." Do you think she would be a stranger in the Lord's 
world? Don't you think she won't be known there, a mother that 
loved her God more than her children? When I think of that, it 
seems as if I didn't know much about making a sacrifice for my 
Master. Oh, that we might know more about the love of Christ! 

The next thing I want to speak of is sympathy. We have got to 
get into sympathy with people if we are going to do them good. This 
world wants sympathy about as much as anything. There are so 
many we could reach if we could sympathize with them. If we 
stand upon a higher plane, we won't succeed. The Son of God 
passed by the mansions and went down in a manger that he might 
sympathize with the lowly. If we want to reach people, we have 
got to put ourselves in the places of these people, if we are going to 
succeed. People say, "How are the masses going to be reached?" 
Why, get into sympathy with them. If a man knows you are in 
sympathy with him, his heart, however hard it may be, will be broken. 
A gentleman one day came to my office for the purpose of getting 
me interested in a young man who had just got out of the peniten- 
tiary. "He says," said the gentleman, "he don't want to go to the 
office; but I want your permission to bring him in and introduce him." 
I said, "Bring him in." The gentleman brought him in and intro- 
duced him; and I took him by the hand, and told him I was glad to 
see him. I invited him up to my house, and when I took him into 
my family I introduced him as my friend. When my little daughter 
came into the room I said, "Emma, this is papa's friend." And she 
went up and kissed him, and the man sobbed aloud. After the child 
left the room I said, "What is the matter?" "O sir," he said, "I 
have not had a kiss for years. The last kiss I had was from my 
mother, and she was dying. I thought I would never love another 
one again." His heart was broken. Just that little kindness show- 
ed I was in sympathy with him. Another young man, just out of 
the penitentiary, came to me, and after I had talked with him for 
some time, he didn't seem to think I was in sympathy with him. I 
offered him a little money, "No," he said, "I don't want your 
money." "What do you want?" "I want some one to have conn- 



THE GOSPEL. 165 

dence in me." I got down and prayed with him; and in my prayer 
I called him a brother, and he shed tears the moment I called him a 
brother. So if we are going to reach men we must make them be- 
lieve we are their brothers. I will tell you how to get there. You 
must put yourself in their places. I tell you, if we only put our- 
selves in their places, we can succeed in bringing souls to Christ. 
Oh, when we see a poor drunkard, let us bear in mind that we might 
have been in the same place under the same circumstances. Oh, may 
God give us love and sympathy, so that we can reach the masses, 
and that many may be reached in this way; and we will see men 
coming to Christ by thousands. I believe, in my soul, we are going 
to see the greatest work in New York we have ever seen in this 
world. Let every one of us that love the Lord Jesus Christ make 
up our minds that, by the grace of God, we will try to help some 
soul to Christ; and the Lord will make us wise in leading souls to 
him, if that is our prayer. 



THE GOSPEL. 



M The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor." Luke 4: 18. 

I want to call your attention to a verse in the 4th chapter of the 
Gospel of Luke — the 18th verse: " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." 
I have spoken a great many times in New York city, but I believe I 
never preached the gospel here but once. That was twelve or 
fifteen years ago, down in the Tombs. I have spoken a great many 
times in different parts of the city; but I have never preached the gospel 
but once. I have tried to arouse Christians up to work. People are 
in the habit of thinking that anything that is in the way of a relig- 
ious meeting is the gospel; but they are mistaken. I have had quite 
a number of letters from Christians, complaining because I don't 
preach the gospel to the people. I want to tell you, if I can, what 
the Gospel of the Son of God is. I want to ask all those who are 
Christians here, to be silently lifting up their hearts in prayer, that 
God may help me to make the way of life plain; and that every one 
may know what the Gospel of God is. I believe I was f converted 
years before I knew what the gospel meant. Now the word gospel 
means "good spell," or in other words, "God's spell." 



166 THE GOSPEL. 

When Christ commenced his ministry, about his first words were, 
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor." That don't mean those who are 
poor in this world's goods, but that means the poor in spirit. Christ 
says, " the Lord has anointed me " for that purpose. He had been 
out of Nazareth for a few weeks, and had gone down to Jordan, 
where he had met the great wilderness preacher. Christ had left 
Nazareth, and went to meet John, that man from the desert that was 
more like Elijah than any man since Elijah went up to heaven, in a 
chariot of fire. There he met a great many people, ten thousands 
of people probably, and he was crying that the kingdom of God was 
at hand. Down there into the audience came a man, who passed 
down into the water, and he requested John to baptize him. John 
said that he needed to be baptized of him. But after the baptism 
there came a voice — God confessed his Son: "This is my beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased." These thousands took the tidings 
all over the country, and the voice had reached Nazareth, that Christ 
had been baptized by John, in Jordan, and that there came down a 
voice from heaven saying, " This is my beloved Son, hear him." 
When he arrived in Nazareth there was no small assemblage ready 
to meet him. He went into the synagogue, as was his custom, and 
he stood up and read the prophecy of the prophet Esaias, and he 
opened the book to read — they did not have books like what we 
have, they used to have parchment — he might have turned to the 
first chapter, "But Israel doth not know me." He might have read 
not that, but "from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is 
no soundness in it." He passed by the 35th chapter — "then the eyes of 
the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped." 
He might have read that, but Calvary had got to have a victory be- 
fore that could be said. He passed over the 9th chapter, he passed 
over the 40th chapter. He might have told them — he might have 
turned to the 55th chapter. He had not been wounded, he had not 
yet gone through Gethsemane. But we read that he found the place 
where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." And that was 
the CDinmencement of his ministry, and that was on his going back 
to Nazareth. And in that 61st chapter of Isaiah he stopped right in 
the middle of a sentence. There were seven things he had come to 
do. He read that part which was that he had come to preach the 
gospel to the poor. The next was, " He hath sent me to heal the 
broken-hearted." Wasn't that good tidings? You would think that 
was good tidings, wouldn't you? The next was he had come to pro- 
claim liberty to the captives, and the next was the recovery of sight 
to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to open 
the doors to the captive, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the 
Lord, and he closed the book. And the eyes of the whole congrega- 



THE GOSPEL. 167 

fcion were upon him. The next sentence which he omitted was, "The 
day of vengeance is at hand." I have an idea when the prophet 
Isaiah wrote those words he did not fully see the first and second 
coming of Christ, that has already passed, and the day of vengeance 
has not come. So it seems as if the prophet Isaiah did not see the 
first and second coming of our Lord. 

Christ shut up the book: he will come back by-and-by, and he will 
open the book, and he will commence to read where he left off. You 
can cry for mercy then, but the door will be shut. But Christ did 
not come to condemn sinners. He came to save them. I have not 
come to New York to preach "The day of vengeance is at hand." I 
have come to proclaim the gospel of Christ. 

I have come to tell you the good tidings. Christ did not come 
into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world 
might be saved. In the 9th chapter of Luke, you will read that he 
called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and au- 
thority over devils, and to heal the sick; that is what he came for — ■ 
to preach the Gospel of God, and to heal the sick. Then in the next 
chapter he calls around him the seventy — he had appointed other 
seventy, also; and he sent them, two and two, before his face, into 
every city and place whither he himself would come. Now, we find 
that he had come into the world just to bring glad tidings. Did you 
ever see or hear of any one that didn't like to receive glad tidings? 
Now, one proof that people don't believe the Bible, is, when they 
wear long faces, as if they had accepted an invitation to an execu- 
tion. That ain't the gospel. The gospel is good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people, "for unto us is born this day, in the city 
of David, a Savior." I don't believe that better news ever fell upon 
the ears of mortal man, than the news of the gospel. I don't believe 
any man ever heard better tidings, and it is glad tidings of heaven. 
God never had but one Son, and he called him to send that good 
news: " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed 
me to preach the gospel to the poor." We find that Moses was 
anointed. He went down into Egypt, and death followed. When he 
was opposed, look at the plagues that fell upon the Egyptians. We 
find that the Spirit of God was upon Elijah. When he wanted to 
protect himself, men lost their lives. The fifty came to get Elisha, 
and he called fire down from heaven, and he was taken up to heaven. 
The spirit came down upon Gideon, and when men came out to meet 
him he slew them by thousands. The Spirit of God came upon Sam- 
son, and he slew men by thousands. The Spirit came upon the holy 
men of old; but when Christ comes, he says, "the Spirit of the Lord 
is upon me " — not to take men's lives — the only man that lost any- 
thing was the man that lost his ear. Peter's faith got lukewarm, and 
he cut off a servant's ear, but the Lord gave it back to him. I don't 
suppose he lost it more than five minutes, and it was just as good as 



168 THE GOSPEL. 

ever when he got it back. I don't suppose you could find a scar 
there. 

Christ says, "I did not come to destroy men's lives. I came to 
save them." And it seems to me to be the greatest madness that the 
world don't receive Christ. That we should have to coax and to 
entreat men to receive Christ, isn't it a mystery? Suppose, while I 
am preaching, a messenger should come in and bring a letter that 
brought good tidings to that mother. Don't you suppose she would 
be glad to receive it? Suppose it told her that her boy that has been 
gone for ten years has returned? He ran away ten years ago, and 
the messenger comes in and states that he that ran away has got 
home. Don't you think that mother's face would light up, so I could 
see it in her countenance? And so, when I preach the gospel, I 
can't help but see those that believe. The joy lights up their faces. 
Look at our churches, how the people throng to them to hear the 
gospel. Let a man preach about something else than the gospel, 
and see if the people would throng to them. There is a void in every 
one's heart, and that will never be filled until they receive the gos- 
pel of Christ. 

Now, I want to tell you why I like the gospel; for I don't believe 
God calls on us to believe the gospel without giving us good reason ; 
and I don't believe he would call it good news unless he gave us a 
reason. It has taken out of my path four of the most bitter enemies 
I had. The loth chapter of Corinthians tells us that the last enemy 
that shall be destroyed shall be death. I see by the badges of mourn- 
ing among you that many of you have lost loved ones. Many of you 
know what it is to have death come to your door, when some loved 
child has been taken from your bosom. Now, I don't know but 
some of you will say, " If a person is afraid of death, he is a coward." 
I don't believe there is a man or woman that ever lived who is not 
afraid of death, unless they knew that Jesus Christ would overcome 
death. Before I knew the Son of God as my Savior, death was a terrible 
enemy to me. Now, up in that little New England village where I 
came from, in that little village it was the custom to toll out the bell 
whenever any one died, and to toll one stroke for every year. Some- 
times they would toll out seventy strokes for a man of seventy, or 
forty strokes for a man of forty. I used to think when they died at 
seventy, and sometimes at eighty, well, that is a good ways off. But 
sometimes it would be a child at my age; and then it used to be 
very solemn. Sometimes I could not bear to sleep in a room alone. 
Death used to trouble me; but thanks to God, it don't trouble me now. 
If he should send his messenger, and the messenger should come up 
here on this platform and say to me, " Mr. Moody, your hour is come; 
I have got to take you away," it would be joyful news for me; for 
though I should be absent from the body, I should be present with 
the Lord. Through the world I can shout, " O death, where is thy 



THE GOSPEL. 160 

sting?" And I hear the voice, I hear the voice — "buried in the 
bosom of the Son of God." That is what Calvary means. " The 
wages of sin is death," but he took the wages himself. That is the 
gospel of the Son of God, and there is no fear for them who believe 
in Christ Jesus. There was Paul; he had got virtually over death. 
Let death come — "O death, where is thy sting?" Sometimes I 
used to go into a grave-yard when some one was about to lie down 
in that narrow house; and when the sexton would shovel and throw 
dirt in on the coffin, it would be like a death-knell to my soul. I 
would hear him say, " Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." Now I can 
measure its depths. I can shout as Paul did; I can say, "O death,, 
where is thy sting?" But this soul of man shall go into the house 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Oh, the grave is lost in 
victory. It is lost in Christ. 

Oh, the blessed gospel of the Son of God, what can we do with- 
out it? When we lay our little children away in death, they shall 
rise again. I was going into a cemetery once, and over the entrance 
I saw these words, "They shall rise again." Infidelity didn't teach 
that; we got that from this Book. Oh, the blessed gospel of the 
Son of God! How every one of you ought to believe it! Young- 
lady, if you have been careless up to this afternoon, oh, may you get 
awake. May you this hour not hesitate to turn from your sins unto 
God, and believe the gospel of his Son. I used to be a good deal 
troubled with my sins, and I thought of the Day of Judgment, when 
all the sins that I had committed in secret should blaze out before 
the assembled universe. But when a man comes to Christ, the gospel 
tells him they are all gone, and in Jesus Christ he is a new creature. 
All I know is, that out of the love which my Lord has for me, he 
has taken all my sins and cast them behind his back; that is, behind 
God's back. How is Satan to get at it? If God has forgiven us 
our sins, they won't be mentioned. In Ezekiel, we are told not one 
of them shall be mentioned. Isn't it a glorious thing to have all our 
sins blotted out? And there is another thought, and that is the 
Judgment. You know if a man has committed some great crime,, 
when he is to be brought into judgment how he dreads it ! How he 
dreads that day when he is to be brought into court, when he is put 
into a box and witnesses are to come up and testify against him, and 
he is there to be judged! But, my friends, the gospel tells us that if 
we come to Christ, we shall never come into judgment. And why? 
Because Christ was judged for us. "He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions." If he has been wounded for us, we haven't got to be 
wounded. "Verily, verily," — which means truly, truly — "I say unto 
you" — now just put your name in there — "He that heareth my words,, 
and believeth on him that sent me, hath" — h-a-t-h, hath. It don't 
say you shall have when you die. It says, hath — " He that heareth 
my words and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, 



170 THE GOSPEL. 

and shall not come into condemnation." That means into judgment. 
He shall not come into judgment, but is passed "from death into 
life." There is judgment out of the way. He shall never come into 
judgment. Why? Because God has forgiven us, and given us 
eternal life — that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ought people to 
be gloomy and put on long faces when that is the news? 

Away out on the frontier of our country, out on the prairies where 
men sometimes go to hunt, or for other purposes, the grass in the dry 
season sometimes catches fire. You will see the flames uprise twen- 
ty or thirty feet high; and you will see those flames rolling over the 
western desert, faster than any fleet horse can run. Now what do 
the men do? They know it is sure death, unless they can make 
some escape. They would try to run away, perhaps, if they had 
fleet horses. But they can't; that fire goes faster than the fleetest 
horse can run. What do they do? Why, they just take a match 
and they light the grass from it; and away it burns, and then they 
get into that burnt district. The fire comes on: and there they stand 
perfectly secure. There they stand perfectly secure — nothing to 
fear. Why? Because the fire has burned all there is to burn. Take 
your stand there on Mount Calvary. The gospel of Jesus Christ is 
to "Whosoever will come." I thank God that I can come to this 
city of New York with a gospel that is free to all. It is free to the 
most abandoned. Still, it may be there are some wives that have 
got discouraged and disheartened. I can tell you the joyful news 
that your husband and sons have not gone so far but that the grace 
of God can save them. The Son of God came to raise up the most 
abandoned. I noticed, on my way down this morning, not less than 
four or five tramps. They looked weary and tired; I suppose they 
had slept on the sidewalk last night. I thought I would like to have 
time just to stop and tell them about the Son of God, and how Christ 
loved them. The gospel of the Son of God is to tell us how he 
loves us. He takes our feet out of the pit, and he puts our feet on 
to the Rock of Ages. And that, my dear friends, is what Christ 
wants to do; and don't think that there isn't some one in your homes 
but that he wants to save. Tell them there is none too abandoned, 
none so young, none so fallen, but that God can save them. There 
was William Dawson, and the power of the Lord was upon him, and 
in closing his meeting one night, he said there wasn't a man in 
London so far gone but that the Lord could save him. There was 
Whitefield, and the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he said, 
" God is so anxious to save souls that he will take the devil's casta- 
way." Whitefield said that the Lord would take the devil's castaway. 
Dawson said there was no man in London so far gone but that the 
Lord would save him. There was a lady missionary whom I knew, 
who found a man who said there was no hope for him; he had sent 
away his day of grace. She went to Mr. Dawson, and said to him, 



THE GOSPEL. 171 

"Mr. Dawson, will you go down and see him, and tell him what you 
said?" Mr. Dawson said he would be glad to go and see him. He 
went up into a five-story house, and away up in the garret he found 
a young man lying upon some straw. He bent over him, and whis- 
pered into his ear, and called him his friend. The young man look- 
ed startled. He says, " You are mistaken in the person when you 
say, ' my friend.' I have got no friends. No one cares for rae." 
Mr. Dawson told him that Christ was as much his friend as of any 
man in London. Poor prodigal! And after he had talked with him 
for some time, he prayed with him, and then he read to him out of 
the Bible, and at last the light of the gospel began to break in upon 
that darkened heart. This young man said to Mr. Dawson he 
thought he could die happy if he knew his father was willing to for- 
give him. Mr. Dawson said to him, "Where does your father live?" 
The young man said he lived in the "West End of London. Mr. 
Dawson said, "I will go and see him, and see if he won't forgive 
you." But the young man said, "No, I don't want to have you to do 
that. My father would abuse you if you should speak to him about me. 
He don't recognize me as his boy any more." Mr. Dawson said, " I 
will go and see him." 

He went up to the West End of London, where he found a very 
fine mansion, and a servant dressed in livery came to the door, and 
he was ushered into the drawing-room, and presently the father, a 
bright, majestic-looking man, came into the room. Mr. Dawson held 
out his hand to shake hands with him, and said, "You have a son by 
the name of Joseph, have you not?" And when the father heard 
that, he refused to shake hands with him, and was going out of the 
room. The father said, "If you have come up here to talk about 
that worthless vagabond, I want you to leave the house. He is no 
son of mine." Mr. Dawson said, "He is yours now, but he won't be 
long; but he is yours now." "Is Joseph sick?" said the man. "Yes," 
said Mr. Dawson, " he is dying. I haven't come for money. I will 
see that he has a decent burial. I have only come to ask you to forgive 
him." "Forgive him! forgive him!" said the father, "I would have 
forgiven him long ago if I thought he wanted me to. Do you know 
where he is?" "Yes, sir, he is in the East End of London." "Can 
you take me to him?" "Yes, sir, I will take you to him." And the 
father ordered out his carriage, and he was on his way. When we 
got there, he said, "Did you find my boy here? Oh, if I had known 
he wanted me to, I would have taken him home long ago." When 
the father went into that room he could hardly recognize his long 
lost boy. The father went over and kissed the boy, and the father 
says to him, "I would have forgiven you long, long ago, if I had 
known you wanted me to. Let my servant order the carriage and 
take you home." But the boy said, "No, father, I am dying; but I 
can die happy in this garret, now that I know you are willing to for- 



172 THE GOSPEL. 

give me." And he told his father how Jesus had received him, and 
in a little while he breathed his last, and out of that dark garret he 
rose up into the kingdom of God. Oh, my friends, there may be 
some one in New York who would rejoice to hear such words. Oh, 
here is a Christian, shall he not publish it? And you that are not 
Christians, won't you come into the kingdom? Oh, that to-day you 
may receive Christ, is the prayer I believe of the hundreds that are 
gathered here. 



THE GOSPEL. 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
to the poor. 1 ' Luke 4: 18. 

You that were here last night remember I was speaking on the 
text — the 4th of Luke, 18th verse: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel." I want to 
continue the subject we had last night. We don't want to get over 
that word M Gospel," too soon. It is too precious. And I don't 
know but it would be well to preach the same thing over and over 
again here, until you believe it. I heard of a minister who preached 
the same sermon three times, and some of the brethren went to him 
and told him he had better preach another sermon, and he said when 
his congregation believed that, he would preach another sermon, but 
he didn't propose to do so until they did. 

" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me 
to preach the gospel." Now, the question is, who shall the gospel 
be preached to? There is a certain class of people who seem to think 
the gospel is very good for drunkards, and thieves, and vagabonds; 
there are so many of these self-righteous Pharisees to-day, who are 
drawing their filthy rags of self-righteousnes around them, and think- 
ing the Bible is only for a certain class. If I understand the Bible 
correctly, the gospel is for all. We read in the last chapter of Mark, 
that almost the last words the Son of God uttered on this earth, were 
these to his disciples: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature." When we come to the gospel, there is no 
distinction; rich and poor must be served alike; learned and un- 
learned; all have to come into the kingdom of God one way, and that 
is by believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, these words were 



THE GOSPEL. 173 

uttered after Christ had tasted death for every man. Gethsemane 
now was behind him; Calvary, with all its horrors, was past; he was 
just ready to go home to take his seat at the right hand of the Father; 
he was just giving the disciples his parting message. In other words, 
he was giving them his commission to go into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature. "And he that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned." 

1 can just imagine all that little band of disciples who stood 
around him, those unlearned men of Galilee, those fishermen who 
had been associated with him for three years — I can imagine the 
tears trickling down their cheeks as he talked of leaving them; and 
one of them, thinking that the Lord didn't really mean that, that he 
didn't mean they should preach the gospel to every creature — for he 
had hard work to make them believe that the gospel should be 
preached to the Gentiles. It seemed as if the Jews wanted to keep 
the gospel in Palestine; but, by the grace of God, it would flow out; 
it would go to the world, because he had given orders that the gos- 
pel should be preached to every creature. And now we find the 
messengers going to the four corners of the earth, to proclaim the 
glad tidings of the gospel of Christ. But I can imagine that Peter 
says: "Lord, you don't really mean that we shall preach the gospel 
to those men that murdered you, to those men that took your life?" 
"Yes," says the Lord; "go and preach the gospel to those Jerusalem 
sinners." I can imagine him saying: "Go and hunt up that man 
that put the cruel crown of thorns upon my brow, and preach the 
gospel to him. Tell him he shall have a crown in my kingdom, 
without a thorn in it. He may sit upon my throne, if he will accept 
of salvation as a gift. Go hunt up that man that spat in my face, 
and preach the gospel to him, and offer him salvation, and tell him 
he can be saved, if he is only cleansed by the blood I have shed at 
Calvary. Go to the man that thrust the spear into my side and tell 
him there is a way. Tell him there is nothing but love in my heart 
for him. Go preach the gospel to every creature." And after he 
had gone upon high, we find the Holy Ghost came down upon the 
tenth day; and then they began to preach. And now see Peter, 
standing there upon the day of Pentecost, and preaching the Gospel 
of God to sinners; and John Bunyan says: "If a Jerusalem sinner 
•can be saved, there is hope for us all." Do you think God is mock- 
ing? Do you think God is preaching to you, and then not giving you 
the power to take it? The gospel is preached to every creature; 
and do you think he is not willing that every creature should be 
saved on the face of the earth? 

Now, I like to proclaim the gospel, because it is to be proclaimed 
to all. When I see a poor drunkard, when I see a thief, when I see 
a prisoner in yonder prison, it is a grand, glorious thing, to go and 
proclaim to him the glad tidings, because I know he can be saved. 



174 THE GOSPEL. 

There is not one that has gone so far or fallen so low but that he can 
be saved; because every one of God's proclamations are headed 
" whosoever." That takes in all; nobody is left out. Somebody said 
he had rather have " whosoever," than his own name, because he 
would be afraid it was some other man who might have had his name. 
This was well brought out in a prison the other day, when the chaplain 
said to me, " I want to tell you a scene that occurred here some time 
ago. Our commissioners went to the Governor of the state and got 
him to give his consent to pardon out five men for good behavior. 
The Governor said the record was to be kept in secret; the men were 
to know nothing about it, and at the end of six months the men were 
brought out, the roll was called, and the president of the commission 
came up and spoke to them ; then putting his hands in his pocket 
he drew out the papers, and said to those 1,100 convicts, 4 I hold in 
my hand pardons for five men.' I never witnessed anything like it. 
Every man held his breath, and it was as silent as death. Then the 
commissioners went on to tell how they got these pardons; how it 
was that the Governor had given them," and the chaplain said the sus- 
pense was so great that he spoke up to the commissioner and told him 
to first read the names of those pardoned, before he spoke further, 
and the first name read out was, "Reuben Johnson will come out 
and get his pardon." He held out the paper, but no one came. He 
looked all around, expecting to see a man spring to his feet at once; 
still no one arose, and he turned to the officer of the prison, and said: 
"Are all the convicts here?" "Yes," was the reply. "Then, Reu- 
ben Johnson will come and get his pardon." The real Beuben 
Johnson was all this time looking around to see where Reuben was; 
and the chaplain beckoned to him, and he turned and looked around 
and behind him, thinking some other man must be meant. A second 
time he beckoned to Reuben, and called to him, and a second time 
the man looked around to see where Reuben was, until at last the 
chaplain said to him, "You are the man, Reuben;" and he got up 
out of his seat and sank back again, thinking it could not be true. 
He had been there for nineteen years, having been placed there for 
life, and when he came up and took his pardon, he could hardly be- 
lieve his eyes, and he went back to his seat and wept like a child; 
and then, when the convicts were marched back to their cells, Reuben 
had been so long in the habit of falling into line, and taking the lock- 
step with the rest, that he fell into his place, and the chaplain had to 
say, "Reuben, come oat, you are a free man." 

That is the way men make out their pardon — for good behavior; 
but the gospel of Jesus Christ is offered to all that have sinned, and 
are not worthy. All a man has got to prove now is that he is not 
worthy, and I will show him that Christ died for him. Christ died 
for us all while we were yet in sin. While we were in London, Mr. 
Spurgeon one day took Mr. Sankey and myself to his orphan asylum, 



THE GOSPEL. 175 

and he was telling about them — that some of them had aunts, and 
some cousins, and that every boy had some friend that took an inter- 
est in him, and came to see him and gave him a little pocket money. 
And one. day, he said, while he stood there, a little boy came up to 
him and said, "Mr. Spurgeon, let me speak to you," and the boy sat 
down between Mr. Spurgeon and the elder who was with the clergy- 
man, and said, "Mr. Spurgeon, suppose your father and mother were 
dead, and you didn't have any cousins, or aunts, or uncles, or friends 
to come to give you pocket money, and give you presents, don't you 
think you would feel bad — because that's me!" Said Mr. Spurgeon, 
"the minute he asked that, I put my hand right down into my pocket 
and took out the money." "Because that's me!" And so with the 
gospel; we must say to those who have sinned, the gospel is offered 
to them. 

As I was talking last night in the inquiry-room, a man tried to tell 
me that he had made many mistakes, but had committed no sins. 
They were all mistakes, instead of sins. Better call things by their 
right names. We have all sinned. There is no righteousness; and 
there is no man that has walked the streets that has not broken the 
law of God. Therefore, all need a Savior; and there is no chance 
of our being saved, no hope of man being saved, unless he will admit 
first that he has sinned and is lost. Of course, if a man has not sin- 
ned he won't need a Savior; but it is just because we have sinned 
that we need the gospel. Now, as I stated last night, the gospel is 
the very best tidings that could come to us. Christ comes to bless 
us. In Glasgow, they were telling me of a scene that occurred when 
Dr. Arnott was preaching there. A woman was in great distress 
about her rent. She could not pay it, and so he took some money 
and went around to the house — went to the door and knocked. He 
listened, and thought he heard the footsteps of some one inside; and 
so he knocked louder. No one came, and he knocked still louder; but 
after waiting some time he went away disappointed. A few days 
afterward he met this lady on the street at Glasgow, and told her 
that he heard she had been in great distress and he went around to 
help her ; and the woman threw up both hands and said, " Why, 
doctor, that was not you, was it? I was in the house all the time, 
and I thought it was the landlord coming around to get the rent; 
and I kept the door bolted." Now, Christ comes to bless. He don't 
come to demand; He don't come to ask you to do something that 
you cannot do. He comes to bless you. When he commenced his 
Sermon on the Mount, what did he say? "Blessed! blessed! blessed!" 
When he got ready to go back to heaven, he raised his hands over 
that little company and breathed upon them blessings. And so, my 
friends, he comes into this building to-night to bless you; to help 
you; He offers to be your salvation; He offers to pay all the debt 
you owe. You owe God a debt you cannot pay. Can you forget 



176 THE GOSPEL. 

this? You have broken the law of God. What are you going to do 
with the sins you have committed? 

What is your hope? Why there is no hope, unless the Lord Jesus 
Christ blots out your sins with his own body, unless Christ pays the 
penalty. If Christ settles the claim, why the claim is settled for all 
time. And that is the doctrine of the Bible, the glorious doctrine of 
substitution. Christ paid the penalty; Christ died in our stead. 
There was a man converted in Europe several years ago, and he liked 
the gospel so well, he thought he would like to go and publish it. 
Well, he started out to publish it, and great crowds came to hear 
him out of curiosity, just as a great many came here out of curiosity, 
to hear the singing, or something of that kind. Well, they came to 
hear him. The man wasn't much of a speaker, so the next night 
there wasn't many there, and the third night the man didn't get a 
hearer. But he was anxious to publish the gospel, and so he got 
some great placards and posted them all over the town, that, if there 
was any man in that town that was in debt, he was to come to his 
office, between certain hours on a certain day, with the proof of the 
indebtedness, and he would pay the debt. Well, of course it went 
all over the town; but the people didn't believe him. One man said 
to his neighbor, "John, do you believe this man will pay our debts?" 
*'Oh, of course not; that is a great sell; that is a hoax." The day 
came, and instead of there being a great rush, there didn't anybody 
■come. Now, it is a great wonder that there isn't a great rush of men 
into the kingdom of God to have their debts paid, when a man can 
be saved for nothing. About ten o'clock there was a man walking 
in front of the office ; he looked this way and that to see if there was 
anybody looking; and by and by he was satisfied there wasn't any- 
body looking, and he slipped in, and he said, " I saw a notice around 
town if any one would call here at a certain hour you would pay 
their debt. Is there any truth in it?" "Yes," says the man; "It is 
quite true. Did you bring around the necessary papers?" "Yes." 
And after the man had paid the debt he said, " Sit down, I want to 
talk to you." And he kept him there until twelve o'clock. And 
before twelve o'clock had passed there were two more came, and had 
their debts paid. At twelve o'clock he let them all out, when they 
found some other men standing around the door, and they said: 
"Well, you found he was willing to pay your debts, didn't you?" 
Yes, they said, it was quite true that he had paid their debts. "Oh, 
if this is so, we are going in to get our debts paid." And they went 
in; but it was too late. The man said if they had called within a cer- 
tain hour he would have paid their debts. 

To every one of you that is a bankrupt sinner — and you never 
saw a sinner in the world but that he was a bankrupt sinner — Christ 
comes and he says, " I will pay the debt." And that is just what he 
ivants to do to-nisrht. Bear in mind that the Son of God came into 



THE GOSPEL. 177 

the world to save sinners, and he has got the power to forgive sin. 
And he has not only got the power, but he is willing to save, and he 
is anxious to save ; and so, my friends, if you will accept Christ's offer 
you can get out of this hall to-night cleansed of all sin. 

Now the question comes, "Who will accept of him?" But I can 
imagine there is a man down in the audience who will say, "Well, 
I don't think a man can be saved so easy. I don't believe in these 
sudden conversions. I don't believe a man can come in here and be 
saved at once." What is it God has got? * Is it a gift? Now we 
read in the 6th chapter of Romans, it is a gift: " The wages of sin is 
death, bat the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." Now if a man is saved, there must be one minute when he 
has not got the gift, and there must be another minute when he has 
it. And that is what it is represented in the Bible. It is a gift. 
"Well," some one says, "haven't I got to feel something before I can 
be saved? How much have I got to give up?" "Give up your 
sins!" No, you have never to give them up, for if you just take 
Christ they will go of themselves. They will all flee away in the 
dim past. But you can't do it of yourself. I tried for a long time 
to give up my sins of myself, and I couldn't do it. But the moment 
I took Christ he snapped the cords; and I have been rejoicing these 
twenty years. And the way to be saved is not to delay, but to come 
and take — t-a-k-e, take. 

When I was in Glasgow, a lady said to me: "You use that word 
*take' very frequently. Is there anything of that kind in the Bible? 
I can't find it. I think you must have manufactured that word." 
Why, in the Bible it says: "The Spirit and the bride say, come. And 
let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is a-thirst, come. 
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." And if 
God says "let him take," he will supply him. If that boy will take 
Christ, who can stop him? All hell and all earth cannot stop him. If 
need be, God would send ten thousand legions of angels to help him 
on his way up. I tell you, if you are not saved it is because you 
won't. You will not come unto him that you might have life. The 
door hangs on that hinge. If a man says " I will rise and come to 
him," 'twont wait. When the prodigal came home, it wasn't when 
he got home that the change took place. It was away, away off in 
that foreign country when he said, "I will arise and go to my father." 
I think with men the turning point will be when they say, "I will 
come, for I want to." If you want to go to heaven, the first thing 
is to make up your mind to go. If I want to go to Chicago, the first 
thing I do is to make up my mind to go. And if you are willing to 
go to Christ, there is no power on earth can keep you away. Now, 
these men who say they can't come, should just be honest and put 
in the right word and say they won't come. 

At one time my sister had trouble with her little boy, and the 
12 



178 THE GOSPEL. 

father said, "Why, Sammy, you must go now and ask your mother's 
forgiveness." The little fellow said he wouldn't. The father says, 
"You must. If you don't go and ask your mother's forgiveness I 
shall have to undress you and put you to bed." He was a bright, 
nervous little fellow, never still a moment; and the father thought, 
he will have such a dread of being undressed and put to bed. But 
the little fellow wouldn't; so they undressed him and put him to bed. 
The father went to his business, and when he came home at noon he 
said to his wife, "Has Sammy asked your forgiveness?" "No," she 
said, "he hasn't." So the father went to him and said, " Why, 
Sammy, why don't you ask your mother's forgiveness?" The little 
fellow shook his head, "Won't do it." " But, Sammy, you have got 
to." "Couldn't." The father went down to his office, and stayed 
all the afternoon; and when he came home he asked his wife, "Has 
Sammy asked your forgiveness?" "No; I took something up to him 
and tried to have him eat, but he wouldn't." So the father went up 
to see him, and said: "Now, Sammy, just ask your mother's for- 
giveness, and you may be dressed and come down to supper with 
us." "Couldn't do it." The father coaxed, but the little fellow 
"couldn't do it." That was all they could get out of him. You know 
very well he could, but he didn't want to. Now the hardest thing a 
man has to do is to become a Christian — and it is the easiest. That 
may seem a contradiction, but it isn't. The hard point is because he 
don't want to. The hardest thing for a man to do is to give up his 
will. That night they retired; and they thought, surely early in the 
morning he will be up ready to ask his mother's forgiveness. The 
father went to him — -that was Friday morning — to see if he was ready 
to ask his mother's forgiveness; but he "couldn't." 

The father and mother felt so bad about it, they couldn't eat; they 
thought it was to darken their whole life. Perhaps that boy thought 
that father and mother didn't love him. Just what many sinners 
think, because God won't let them have their own way. The father 
went to his business; and when he came home he said to his wife, 
"Has Sammy asked your forgiveness?" "No." So he went to the 
little fellow and said, "Now, Sammy, are you not going to ask your 
mother's forgiveness?" "Can't." And that was all they could get 
out of him. The father couldn't eat any dinner. It was like death 
in the house. It seemed as if the boy was going to conquer- hia. 
father and mother. Instead of his little will being broken, it looked 
very much as if he was going to break theirs. Late Friday after- 
noon, "Mother, mother, forgive," says Sammy, — " me." And the little 
fellow said "me," and he sprang to his feet, and said: "I have said 
it! Now dress me and take me down to see father. He will be so 
glad to know I have said it." And she took him down, and when 
the little fellow came in he said, "I've said it, I've said it!" 

Oh, my friends, it is so easy to say, "I will arise and go to my 



NO DIFFERENCE. 179 

God." It is the most reasonable thing you can do. Isn't it an un- 
reasonable thing to hold out? Come right to God just this very 
hour. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
And now this night believe, and thou shalt be saved. 



NO DIFFERENCE. 

44 For there is no difference." Romans 3: 23. 



I want to call your attention to a clause in that chapter I have 
just read, a part of the 22d verse: "For there is no difference." 
Now that is one of the verses, one of the portions of Scripture, that 
the natural man don't like. I have had many a quarrel with men 
on this verse; because we are just apt to think we are a little better 
than our friends and our neighbors, and men don't like to believe 
there is no difference. It is one of the greatest lessons a man has to 
learn — that he is a sinner. If you don't believe that you are sick, 
you won't call in a physician. It is just because the natural man 
don't like this text, I have taken it to-night. I have found out long ago 
that the lessons we don't like are the best medicine for us. I can imagine 
there is some one here who says: "I don't believe that statement 
that there is no difference." I can imagine there is some one here 
who says: "Isn't it better for a man to be a sober man than it 
is to be a drunkard? Isn't it better for a man to be honest 
than it is for a man to be dishonest?" Yes, we will admit 
all that; but that don't apply when it comes to the great question 
of salvation. If a man has not been saved from his sin, he must 
perish like the rest of the world. Now, if a man wants to find out 
what he is, let him turn to the 3d chapter of Romans. He can read 
his life there. If you want to read your own biography, you need 
not write it yourself. Turn to the 3d chapter of Romans, and it is 
all there, written by a man who knows a good deal more about us 
than we do about ourselves. Christ was the only one that ever trod 
this earth that saw everything in the heart of man. We read that he 
didn't commit himself because he knew their hearts. The heart is 
deceitful. Who can know it? It is deceitful above all things and 
it is desperately wicked. Now, Satan either tries to make men 
believe that they are good enough without salvation, or if he can't 



180 NO DIFFERENCE. 

make them believe that, he tries to tell them that they are so bad 
God won't have anything to do with them. 

The law isn't to save men, but the law is brought in just to show 
man that he is lost and ruined under the law. These people that 
are trying to save themselves by the law are making the worst mis- 
take of their lives. Some people say, If they try to do right, they think 
that is all that is required of them. They say, " I try to keep the 
law." Well, did you ever know a man keep the law, except the Son 
of God himself? The law was never given to save men by. "And 
what was the law then given for?" It was given to show man his 
lost and ruined condition. It was given to measure men by their 
fruits. Before God saves a man, he first stops his mouth. J meet 
some people in the inquiry-room who talk a good deal. When I 
meet those people, I say to myself, "They are very far from the 
kingdom of God." A perfect God couldn't give an imperfect stand- 
ard; a perfect God sees that the law is pure and good; but we are 
not good if we don't come up to the standard. Now, if a man should 
come into New York city and advertise that he could take a photo- 
graph of people's hearts, and give a perfect likeness, do you think 
he would get a customer in New York? If we go to have a photo- 
graph taken, we brush ourselves up and have it taken sitting, and 
standing, and sitting in this position, and sitting in that position, and 
standing in this position, and standing in that position; and if the 
artist natters us and makes us look better than we do, we send it 
around to our friends, and we say, "Yes, that is a good likeness." 
Suppose the artist could get a photograph of the heart of the true 
man, do you think he would get many customers? A good many of 
you would say: "I wouldn't like to have the wife of my bosom see 
my heart. I wouldn't like to have her read my secret thoughts." 
The heart of man is a fountain of corruption, vileness and pollu- 
tion; and there is no hope for a man being saved until he finds out 
he is bad. 

And so the law is a looking-glass, just to show a man how foul he 
is in the sight of God. A little while before the Chicago fire, I went 
home one afternoon to my family, and I thought I would take them 
out riding. My little boy, about two years old, clapped his hands, 
and wanted to know if I wouldn't take him up to Lincoln Park to 
see the bears. I said that I would, and I went out. I hadn't been 
gone a great while, when the little fellow wanted his mother to wash 
him up; and then he wanted to go out and play. Well, he got play- 
ing in the dirt, and he got all covered with dirt; and when I drove 
up he wanted to get into the carriage. I said: "No, Willie, you are 
not ready; I must take you in and get you washed." The little fel- 
low said, " Oh, papa, I'se ready." I told him he wasn't ready, he 
was all over dirt. " But, papa, mamma washed me, I'se clean." I 
could not make him believe that his face was all dirty. He could not 



NO DIFFERENCE. 181 

believe it; his mamma washed him, and he was clean. So I took 
him up, and let the little fellow see himself in the looking-glass in 
the carriage. He saw the dirt, and it stopped his mouth. I held 
him up to the looking-glass, so that he saw the dirt; but I did not 
take the looking-glass to wash his face with. That is what people 
do. The law was not given to save man. It was given to show him 
his lost and ruined condition. It wasn't given to save men — the Son 
of God came to do that work; but the law is the schoolmaster that 
came to show us what to do when we are saved. Stop all this idle 
doing, and just come to the fountain that has just been opened in 
the house of David for sin and uncleanliness. I can imagine some 
of you may say: " I am sure I am not as bad as some people. I am 
not a publican. I never got drunk in my life. I don't like to have 
Mr. Moody say I am as bad as other people." I don't know but 
pharisaism is as bad as drunkenness, and I find you can just sum up 
the whole human race into about two heads — the publican and the 
pharisee. Yonder is an orchard, and in that orchard there are two 
apple trees — miserable, sour, bitter. Stop, one of them is bare; they 
are worthless. Why are they good for nothing? Well, one tree 
has got five hundred apples, and the other has got five. There is no 
difference. The fact is, the tree is bad. One man may have more 
fruit than another, but the fruit is bad — from the old Adam stock. 
God didn't look for good fruit from Adam's stock. Make the foun- 
tain good, and the stream will be good. Make men's hearts good and 
their lives will be good. You might as well tell a man to jump over 
the moon as to be moral, if he hasn't got God in his heart. The way 
to improve the soul of a man is to strike at the root of the tree; and 
if the heart is right, and in sympathy with God, there will be no 
trouble about the life. You need not be cultivating a crab-apple 
tree — that is what some people do. 

Now, in the law it is written that a man that breaks the least of 
the law is guilty of all. Some people say, " I have not broken the 
ten commandments." They seem to think that the ten command- 
ments are ten different laws. But a man who breaks the least of the 
commandments has broken all; and if you have broken one of the 
commandments, you have broken the law of God. Some people 
think that if they only fail in one commandment, they are not so bad; 
but if a man is guilty of breaking one, he breaks all. And where 
can we find one man who does not break more than one command- 
ment? How many people here in New York worship idols? Meas- 
ure your heart by the law of God, my friends, and you'll find your- 
self guilty. The reason why people sin so much is because they 
don't believe they do sin. Unbelief is the root of all evil. Adam 
sinned through unbelief, and we must get out of the pit at the same 
place he fell in. He fell by unbelief, and we must believe to be 
saved. You go to a prison, and you will find there a good many 



182 NO DIFFERENCE. 

criminals; one is there for one offense and one for another, but they 
are all criminals. So here to-night; some of us are guilty of one of- 
fense and some of another, but we are all sinners. 

A few years ago we had a law in our city requiring all the police- 
men to be of a certain height, five feet and ten inches, I think it was; 
and of good moral character, and to be well recommended. One 
day as I was going down the street with a friend, I saw a crowd of 
men standing in front of the commissioner's office, waiting to be ex- 
amined. Now, suppose my friend had gone with me into the com- 
missioner's office, and we had presented certificates of good moral 
character, coming from persons high in place. When I came to 
present my recommendations, the commissioner would have said, 
"Well, Mr. Moody, before we look at your papers, we will proceed 
to measure you;" and lo, I am found to be but about five feet high! 
So I am rejected. And my friend might say, "Oh, well, I am taller 
than you are, so I need have no fear on that score;" but when they 
come to measure him, he is found to be just one-tenth of an inch too 
short, and they throw him out too; My father once told me that in 
England the archers used to shoot at a ring, and if any archer failed 
to shoot all his arrows through the ring, he was called a sinner. 
Now, suppose I should take ten arrows and try to send them through 
a ring at the other side of the building, and should only get one 
through, I should be called a sinner. And suppose Brother Taylor 
should take as many arrows and send nine through, one after the 
other, and just miss the ring with the last one, why he would be a 
sinner too, just like me. 

My friends, have any of you missed the mark? I see a man down 
there in the audience bow his head. There is hope of your being 
saved if you feel you have sinned. And who of us have not failed, 
in many ways? We are all failures, and every man since Adam has 
been a failure. Many persons wish they could have been created per- 
fect, like Adam, but there is no man who would not have fallen like 
Adam, if he had been put in Adam's place. Put one thousand children 
into this building, and give them all sorts of playthings, but tell them 
that there is one thing in the room that they must not look at; leave 
them alone for -half an hour, and they would all be looking at that 
one thing. 

Man is a stupendous failure. God on Mount Horeb shouted the 
law to man, and man said; "Oh, yes, Lord, we'll keep the law; 
we'll not break this thy command." And the very first command- 
ment was, "Thou shalt not have other gods." Then Moses and Joshua 
go to have an interview with God; and the people whom they had 
left behind at once began to say, " Make us a god." And the golden 
calf was made, and they worshiped it. When Moses and Joshua 
returned from Horeb, they heard a great shout. Ha! do you hear 
that shout? Is it the shout of victory, of those who are rejoicing in 



HO DIFFERENCE. 183 

conquest? No, it is the shout of the idolater. They all worship the 
golden calf. It was an idolatrous shout that the prophets heard. 
The worship of the golden calf! You find it in New York. One 
man says, Give me more money; another, Give me a seat in Con- 
gress; another, Give me a bottle of rum. Ah, it's easy to condemn 
the Israelites; it is easy to smile; but beware that you are not^guilty 
of the same sin. Man was a failure under the judges, failure under 
the prophets; and now, for two thousand years, under grace, he has 
been a most stupendous failure. Walk the streets, and see how 
quickly he goes to ruin. How many are hastening down to the dark 
caves of sin! Man in his best day, under the most favorable circum- 
stances, is nothing but a failure. 

Imagine Noah stopping work on the Ark, and going on a preach- 
ing tour. He tells the people of the flood; he warns them of their 
danger; he exhorts them to repent. All are to perish, the wise, the 
rich, the great — all, all are to perish when God comes to judge. 
They mock at him. They tell him: "You'd better go back to your 
old ark; do you think we will believe that the rich, the priests, the 
great, the powerful, are going to perish as you say?" They would 
mock, and would not believe. I can hear over the waves, that proved 
the warning true, this one text, "All have sinned and come short of 
the glory of God." Take the people of Sodom. Do you believe 
they would believe the warning voice. " No," they would say; 
"Sodom to be destroyed? Nonsense; it was never more prosper- 
ous." They would not believe; and didn't they all perish alike? I 
tell you there is no difference when God comes. It was my sad lot 
to be in Chicago when that great fire swept through the city, and I 
have often thought it was almost a glimpse of the judgment day. 
All were on a level then. There was the house of the millionaire, 
and near it the house of the poor man. The rich man turned his 
back on his gilded palace, and the poor man went with him. There 
was no difference. We are all on one platform; let no mocking 
words escape! Flee for your lives! Flee! Flee! There is a mountain 
we can all escape to — it's Calvary. You can escape thus, any night. 
Some may say I paint too dark a picture. For two nights I have tried 
to tell you of the gospel; perhaps I have made a mistake. Christ 
kept the law. He was the lamb, pure and spotless. He never broke 
the law; therefore he can die for the sins of man. The law cuts all 
down, as a scythe cuts down the grass. All go down before its 
sweep. Right here comes in the gospel — the Son of God came to seek 
and to save that which was lost. The grace of God brings grace 
down to men. Substitution. If you take that out of the Bible, you 
can take the Bible along with you, if you wish to. The same story 
runs all through the book. The scarlet thread is unbroken from 
Genesis to Revelation. Christ died for us, that's the end of the law. 
I always loved that hymn sometimes sung by brother Sankey: 



184 NO DIFFERENCE. 

"Free from the law. O! happy condition." He was bruised for us r 
and through him are we saved. Napoleon Bonaparte once sent out 
a draft. A man was drafted who didn't want to go. A friend vol- 
unteered to go in his place; he went into the army and was killed. 
A second draft was made, and by some accident the same man was 
drafted again; but he said to the officer: "You can't take me, I'm 
dead. I died on such a battlefield." "Why, man, you are crazy," 
said the officer. "You are not dead; here you are alive and well be- 
fore me." "No, sir," said the man; "I am dead. The law has no 
claim on me; look at the roll." They looked, and found another 
name written against his. They insisted; he carried his case before 
the Emperor, who said that he was right; his friend had died for him. 
Christ died for me. The wages of sin is death — Christ has received 
this payment. It is the height of folly to bear this burden, when we 
can so easily step out from under it. 

In Brooklyn, I saw a young man go by without any arms. My 
friend pointed him out, and told me his story. When the war broke 
out, he felt it to be his duty to go to the front. He was engaged to 
be married, and while in the army letters passed frequently between 
him and his intended wife. After the battle of the Wilderness, the 
young lady looked anxiously for the accustomed letter. At last one 
came, in a strange hand. She opened it with trembling fingers, and 
read these words: "We have fought a terrible battle. I have been 
wounded so awfully that I shall never be able to support you more. 
A friend writes this for me. I love you more tenderly than ever, 
but I release you from your promise. I will not ask you to join your 
life with the maimed life of mine." That letter was never answered: 
the next train that left, the young lady was on it. She went to the 
hospital. She found out the number of his cot, and she went down 
the aisle, between the long rows of wounded men. At last she saw 
the number; she threw her arms around his neck and said: "I'll not 
desert you. I'll take care of you." He did not resist her love. They 
were married; and there is no happier couple than this one. You're 
dependent on another. Christ says: "I'll take care of you. I'll take 
you to this bosom of mine," That young man could have spurned 
her love; he could, but didn't. Surely you can be saved, if you will 
accept salvation of him. Oh, that the grace of God may reach your 
heart to-night, by which you may be brought out from under the 
curse of the law. 



THE SECOND BIRTH. 

Verily, verify, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the king* 
dom of God."— John 3: 3. 

I will direct your attention to the 3d chapter of John and the 
3d verse: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I 
say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the king- 
dom of God." You will see by the 3d chapter of Romans that it is 
absolutely necessary that a man be born again. You see in the 3d 
chapter of Romans what man is by nature. If you want to find out 
what God is, turn to the 3d chapter of John: " God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
on him shall have everlasting life." Yes, read the 3d chapter of 
Romans if you want to find out how man lost life. Then read the 
3d chapter of John; and read it prayerfully and with God's Spirit in 
you, and you will see how man is going to get everlasting life back 
again. I don't know a chapter that ought to be read more in a 
Christian spirit, and read more deeply than that chapter. It is so 
plain and reasonable. If there are a thousand people here to-night 
who want to know what love God has for them, let them read the 3d 
chapter of John; and they will find it there, and find eternal life. 
They need not go out of this hall to-night to find eternal life. They 
will find it here in this chapter, and find eternal life before these 
services close. They hear to-night how the way for the salvation of 
their souls is opon to them. Yes, I do not know anything more im- 
portant than this subject of regeneration. I don't know of anything 
in the Bible more important and more plain than that; and yet it is 
a question that neither the churches nor the world is sound upon. 
There is no question upon which the churches and the world are 
more confounded than upon this very question of regeneration. If 
a man is sound on every other subject, you may find that he is un- 
sound on this plain subject of regeneration. It is the very founda- 
tion of our hope, and the very foundation of our religion. It is a 
great deal better, with God's help, to understand this question per- 
fectly first, than to go on further in the Word of God. It is a solemn 
question — "Am I born of the Spirit? Have I been born again?" 
For you know that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." 

Now, let me say what regeneration is not. It is not going to 
Ohurch. Very often I see people and ask them if they are Christians. 
185 



186 THE SECOND BIRTH. 

"Yes, of course I am; at least I think I am; I go to church every 
Sunday." Why, I could say to them, the very devil goes to church 
every Sunday; and no one goes more regularly to church than he 
does. If you go down in the dark alleys and by-ways of the city, and 
do all the good you can, preach God's word and show God's love to 
those abandoned beings — I tell you that is not regeneration; No! 
no! It is a false idea that you get regenerated by scattering the 
seed of God by the wayside. Why, if going to church was regenera- 
tion — being born again — there is hope even for Satan himself. But 
there never was a church erected but that the devil was the first to 
enter and the last to leave. There is no one, I tell you, who is a 
more regular attendant. But still there is another class of Christians, 
or who think they are Christians. They say: "I am trying to do 
what is right — am I not a Christian? Is not that a new birth?" No; 
I tell you, no. What has that to do with being born again? There 
is yet another class — those who have turned over a new leaf, and 
think they are regenerated. No; forming a new resolution is not 
being born again. That will not do you any good. 

Nor will being baptized do you any good. Yet you hear people 
say: "Why, I have been baptized, and I was born again when I 
was baptized." They believe that because they are baptized into the 
church, they are baptized into the kingdom of God. I tell you that 
is utterly impossible. You may be baptized into the visible church, 
and yet not be baptized into the Son of God. Baptism is all right 
in its place. God forbid that I should say anything against it. But 
if you put that in the place of regeneration — in the place of a new 
birth — it is a terrible mistake. You cannot be baptized into the 
kingdom of God. If I thought I could baptize men into the kingdom 
of God, it would be a good deal better for me to do that than to 
preach. I should get a bucket of water, and go up and down the 
streets, and save men that way. If they would not let me do it while 
they were awake, I would do it while they were asleep. I would 
do it anyhow. For, " except a man be born again, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." If any one here to-night rests his hopes 
on anything else — any other foundation — I pray to God that he may 
sweep it away from him. You may be baptized into the church and 
not be disciples of Jesus Christ. I say to you, do not rest your 
hopes on that foundation. Another class says: "I go to the Lord's 
supper; I partake uniformly of the sacrament." Blessed ordinance! 
Jesus hath said that as often as ye do it ye commemorate his death. 
Yet, that is not being born again ; that is not passing from death into 
life. It says plainly — and so plainly that there need not be any mis- 
take about it—" Except ye are born of the Spirit, ye cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." What has a sacrament to do with that? 
What has baptism to do with being born again? What has going to 
church to do with being born again? But another man comes and 



THE SECOND BIRTH. 187 

says, " I say my prayers regular." Still, I say, that that is not being 
born again. That is not being born of the Spirit. 

It is a very solemn question, then, that comes up before us; and 
would that every one should ask himself earnestly and faithfully: 
"Have I been born again? Have I been born of the Spirit? Have 
I passed from death unto life?" Now there is another class of men 
who say that these meetings are very good for a certain class of peo- 
ple. That they would be very good if you could get the drunkard 
here, or get the gambler here, or get other vicious people here; that 
would do a great deal of good. There are certain men that need to 
be converted, who say: "Who did Christ say this to? Who was 
Nicodemus? Was he a drunkard, a gambler, or a thief?" He was 
one of the very best men of Jerusalem; no doubt about that. He 
was an honorable councillor; he belonged to the Sanhedrim; he held 
a very high position; he was one of the best men in the state; he 
was an orthodox man; he was one of the very soundest men. Why, 
if he were here to-day, he would be made a president of one of our 
colleges; he would be put at once into one of our seminaries, and 
have the " Reverend" put before his name — " Reverend Nicodemus, 
D.D.,"or even "LL.D." And yet, what did Christ say to him? 
u Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
So said he to the woman in the fourth chapter of St. John. In the 
eighth chapter you see an example of self-righteousness, when the 
Pharisees were talking to him. Well, there are Pharisees at the 
present day, who rely upon their own merits and their own greatness. 
They say to you: "Oh, yes; these meetings are very good for the 
abandoned and the outcasts, and the unfortunate; they are very good 
for immoral men; but we are moral. Tell these tilings to men who 
are not moral." They seem to think that when Jesus said, " Ye 
must be born again," he meant some one else that must be born 
again — didn't mean them at all. You see John the beloved when 
walking through the streets, and you say to him, " I met your Master 
last night — I went around to see him." John would say, " How did 
you like him?" His friend would reply, "I never met such a person 
in my life; never heard a man talk as he did. What he told me has 
been ringing in my ears ever since. He told me that God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotton Son, that whosoever be- 
lieved on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John, does 
your Master talk that way all the time?" "Yes, he always talks in 
that way." That man will never forget that interview. He was 
found in the dark by Christ; he was directed into the right way; in 
that way he will ever continue, and there is not a thing he would not 
do for Jesus. See Nicodemus. He, with Joseph of Arimathea, took 
down the body of Jesus and brought it away, and stayed by Jesus to 
the last. I never knew a man that had a personal interview with 
Jesus that did not stay by him. Oh, make up your mind that you 



188 THE SECOND BIRTH. 

will seek him, and follow him until yon have an interview with him; 
for never man spake as that man spake. He is just the man that 
every one wants. 

But I can imagine some one say: "If that is to have a new birth, 
what am I to do? I can't create life. I certainly can't save myself." 
You certainly can't, and we don't preach that you can. We tell you 
it is utterly impossible to make a man better without Christ, and that 
is what men are trying to do. They are trying to patch up this old 
Adam's nature. There must be a new creation. Regeneration is a 
new creation; and if it is a new creation, it must be the work of God. 
In the 1st ahapter of Genesis man don't appear. There is no one there 
but God. Man is not there to help or take part. When God creat- 
ed the earth, he was alone. When God redeemed the world, he was 
alone, " That which was born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is 
born of the Spirit is spirit." The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, 
and the leopard cannot change his spots. When I was in England 
my little girl said, "Papa, why don't those colored people wash them- 
selves white?" You might as well try to make yourself pure and holy 
without the help of God. It would be just as easy for you to do that 
as for that black man to wash himself white. The Ethiopian cannot 
change his skin, neither can the leopard change his spots. A man 
might just as well try to leap over the moon as to serve God in the 
flesh. Therefore "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Now God tells us in this chap- 
ter how we are to get into his kingdom. 

We are not to work our way in, — not but that salvation is worth 
working for. We admit all that. If there were rivers and mountains 
in the way, it would be worth swimming those rivers and climbing 
those mountains. There is no doubt that salvation is worth all that; 
but we don't get it by our works. It is to him that worketh not, 
but believeth. We work because we are saved: we don't work to 
be saved. We work from the cross but not towards it. Now it is 
written, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Why 
you must have your salvation before you can work it out. Suppose 
I say to my little boy, " Go and work out that garden," I must fur- 
nish him the garden before he can work it out. Suppose I say to 
him, "I want you to spend that $100 carefully." "Well," he says, 
"let me have the $100, and I will be careful how I spend it." I re- 
member when I first left home and went to Boston; I had spent all 
my money, and I went to the post-office three times a day. I knew 
there was only one mail a day from home ; but I thought, by 
some possibility, there might be a letter for me. At last I got a let- 
ter from my little sister, and I was awful glad to get it. She had 
heard that there was a great many pickpockets in Boston, and a 
large part of that letter was to have me be very careful not to let 
anybody pick my pocket. Now I had got to have something in my 



THE SECOND BIRTH. 189 

pocket in order to have it picked. So you have got to have salva- 
tion before you can work it out. 

"It is to him that worketh not but believeth." "When Christ 
shouted on Calvary, "It is finished," he meant what he said. All that 
men have to do now is, just to accept of the work of Jesus Christ. 
There is no hope for a man or a woman as long as they are trying 
to work out their salvation. I can imagine there are some people 
here who will say, as Nicodemus did, " This is a very mysterious 
thing." I see the scowl on that Pharisee's brow as he says, "How 
can these things be?" It sounds very strange to the ear. "Born 
again; born of the Spirit ? How can these things be ?" A great 
many people say: "You must reason it out; but if you don't reason 
it out, don't ask us to believe it." Now, I can imagine a great many 
people in this hall saying that. When you ask me to reason it out, 
I tell you frankly I can't do it. "The windbloweth where itlisteth, 
and you hear the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." I 
can't understand all about the wind. You ask me to reason it out. 
I can't. It may blow due north here, and up to Boston it may blow 
due south. I may go up a few hundred feet and find it blowing in 
an entirely opposite direction from what it is down here. You ask 
me to explain it, and because I don't understand it, suppose I stand 
here and assert, "Oh, humph! there is no such thing as wind." I can 
imagine that little girl down there saying: "I know more about it 
than that man does; often have I heard the wind, and felt the wind 
blowing against my face," and she says, "Didn't the wind blow my 
umbrella out of my hands the other day; and didn't I see it blow a 
man's hat off in the street? Haven't I seen it blow the trees in the 
forests, and the grain in the country?" My friends, you might just 
as well tell me to-night that there is no wind, as to tell me there is 
no such thing as a man born of the Spirit. I have felt the Spirit of 
God working in my heart, just as much as I have felt the wind blow- 
ing in my face. I can't reason it out. There are a great many 
things I can't reason out that I believe. I never could reason out 
the Creation. I can see the world: but I can't tell how God made it 
out of nothing. All your Tyndalls and your philosophers of the 
present day can't create one grain of sand out of nothing. But even 
these men will admit there is a creating power. There are a great 
many things that I can't explain and that I can't reason out, that I 
believe. 1 heard a commercial traveler say that he had heard that 
the ministry and religion of Jesus Christ was a matter of revelation, 
and not of investigation. "W hen it pleases God to reveal his Son 
to me," says Paul. There were a party of young men together, and 
these men went back to the country; and on their journey they made 
up their mind not to believe anything they could not reason out. 
An old man heard them, and presently he said: "I heard you say you 



190 THE SECOND BIRTH. 

would not believe anything you could not reason out." "Yes," they 
said; "that was so." "Well," he said, "coming down on the train 
to-day, I noticed some geese, some sheep, some swine, and some cat- 
tle, all eating grass. Can you tell me by what process that same 
grass was turned into hair, feathers, bristles, and wool? Do you be- 
lieve it is a fact?" "Oh, yes," they said; "we can't help believing 
that, though we fail to see it." "Well," said the old man, "I can't 
help believing in the regeneration of man when I see men that have 
been reclaimed. I see men that have been reformed. Haven't some 
of the very worst men in the city been regenerated — picked up out 
of the pit, and their feet put upon the rock, and a new song put in 
their mouth? It was cursing and blaspheming; now it is praising 
God. Old things have passed away, and all things have become new; 
not reformed only, but regenerated — a new man in Christ Jesus. 

Look you, down there in the dark alleys of New York is a poor 
drunkard. I think if you want to get near hell, go to a poor drunk- 
ard's home. Go to the house of that poor miserable drunkard. Is 
there anything nearer like hell on earth ? See the want and distress 
that reigns there. But hark! A footstep is heard at the door, and 
the children run and hide themselves. The patient wife waits to 
meet him. The man has been her torment. Many a time she has 
borne about for weeks the marks of blows; many a time that strong 
right hand has been brought down on her defenseless head. And 
now she waits, expecting to hear his oaths and suffer his brutal treat- 
ment. He comes in and says to her: "I have been to the meeting, 
and I heard there that if I will I can be converted. I believe that 
God is able to save me." Go down to that house again in a few 
weeks, and what a change! As you approach you hear some one 
singing. It is not the song of a reveler, but they are singing the 
"Rock of Ages." The children are no longer afraid of him, but 
cluster around his knee. His wife is near him, her face lit up with a 
happy glow. Is not that a picture of regeneration? I can take you 
to thousands of such homes, made happy by the regenerating power 
of the religion of Christ. What men want is the power to overcome 
temptation, the power to lead a right life. 

The only way to get into the kingdom of God is to be born into it. 
If the archangel Gabriel was to wing his way here to-night, and 
we could have a chance to tell him all our wishes, we couldn't ask 
him for a better way of getting into the kingdom of God. Christ has 
made salvation ready for us, and all we must do is just to take it. 
Oh, may we not hesitate to take it! There is a law in this country 
requiring that the president must be born in the country. When 
foreigners come to our shores they have no right to complain against 
such a law, which forbids them from ever becoming presidents. 
Now, hasn't God a right to make a law that all those who become 
heirs of eternal life must be born into his kingdom ? An unregen- 



THE SECOND BIRTH. 191 

erated man would rather be in hell than in heaven. Take a man 
whose heart is full of corruption and wickedness, and place him in 
heaven among the pure, the holy, and the redeemed; and he wouldn't 
want to stay there. My friends, if we are to be happy in heaven, we 
must begin to make a heaven here on earth. Heaven is a prepared 
place for prepared people. If a gambler or blasphemer were taken 
out of the streets of New York and placed on the crystal pavement 
of heaven, and under the shadow of the tree of life, he would say, 
"I don't want to stay here." If men were taken to heaven just as 
they are by nature, without having their hearts regenerated, there 
would be another rebellion in heaven. Heaven is filled with a com- 
pany of those that are twice born. When I was born in 1837, I re- 
ceived my old Adam nature; and when I was born again in 1856, I 
had another nature given to me. 

It is impossible to serve God aright unless you first make up your 
mind to be born again. If a house is built upon the sand, it falls; 
but if it is founded upon a rock, it stands firm against the wind and 
wave. Our faith can never endure unless it is founded on Christ. 
We may travel through the earth and see many countries; but there 
is one country — the land of Beulah, which John Bunyan saw in vision 
— that country we shall never see unless we are born again — regen- 
erated by Christ. We look abroad and see many beautiful trees; 
but the tree of life we shall never see until our eyes are made clear 
by faith in the Savior. You may see the beautiful rivers of the earth 
— the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Hudson — you may ride upon their 
bosoms; but bear in mind that your eye will never rest upon the 
river which bursts out from the throne of God and flows through the 
upper kingdom. God has said it, and not man. You will never see 
the kingdom of God, except you are born again. You may see the 
kings and lords of the earth; but the King of kings and Lord of 
lords you will never see, except you are born again. When you 
are in London, you may go to the tower and see the crown of En- 
gland, which is worth millions, and is guarded there by soldiers; but 
bear in mind that your eye will never rest upon the crown of life, ex- 
cept you are born again. You may come to these meetings and 
hear the songs of Zion which are sung here; but one song — that of 
Moses o*id the Lamb — the uncircumcisedear shall never hear that 
song, unless you are born again. We may see the beautiful man- 
sions of New York and the Hudson; but bear in mind that the man- 
sions which Christ has gone to prepare you shall never see, unless 
you are born again. It is God who says it. You may see ten thou- 
sand beautiful things in this world; but the city that Abraham 
caught sight of — and from that time he became a pilgrim and a so- 
journer — you shall never see, unless you are born again. Many of 
you may be invited to marriage feasts here; but you will never at- 
tend the marriage supper of the Lamb, except you are born again. 



192 THE SECOND BIRTH. 

It is God who says it, dear friend. You may be looking on the face 
of your sainted mother to-night, and feel that she is praying for you; 
but the time will come when you mall never see her again, except 
you are born again. I may be speaking to a young man or a young 
lady who has recently stood by the bedside of a dying mother, and 
she said to you, "Be sure and meet me in heaven;" and you made 
the promise. Ah! you shall never see her again, except you are born 
again. I believe Jesus of Nazareth sooner than those infidels, who 
say you do not have to be born again. If you see your children who 
have gone before, you must be born of the Spirit. 1 may be speak- 
ing to-night to a father and mother who have recently borne a loved 
■one to the grave; and how dark your home seems! You will never 
see her again, except you are born again. If you wish to meet your 
loved ones, you must be born again. 

I may be speaking to a father and a mother who have a loved one 
up yonder; and if you could hear her speak, she would say, "Come 
this way." Haven't you got a sainted friend? Young man or young 
lady, haven't you got a mother in the world of light; and if you could 
hear her speak, wouldn't she say, "Come this way, my son" — "Come 
this way, my daughter"? If ever you see her again, you must be 
born again. Yes; we all have an elder Brother there. Nearly 1900 
years ago, he crossed over; and from the heavenly shores he is call- 
ing you to heaven. Let us turn our back upon the world. Let us 
give a deaf ear to the world. Let us get our heart in the kingdom 
of God, and cry, "Life! Life! Eternal life!" Let us pray that God 
may keep every soul now here from going out of this building to- 
night without being born again! 



HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN. 

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted 
up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 
3: 14, 15. 

You who were here last night remember that I was speaking upon 
the text in the 3d chapter of John, "Ye must be born again." Now, 
I want to call your attention to-night to the little word "must" in the 
same chapter. The Son of Man must be lifted up. I now come to 
the remedy, for when it was time to close last evening, I had not an 
opportunity to take up the subject. I want, on the present occasion, 
to take up the matter where I left off; I don't know but some went 
away disappointed by hearing the statement that they must be born 
again. They must have said, "I do wish he had not left off so soon; 
I wish he had gone on and told me how I must be born again." God 
helping me, I will try to tell it to you to-night, and I would ask, 
while I try to do this, that Christians would lift up to God their 
hearts in prayer, that the way be made so plain that every one may 
oome into the kingdom of God. 

Let us see how God is able to save unto the utmost. I want you 
to read the 14th and 15th verses of that chapter: "And as Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have 
eternal life." "That whosoever believeth in him shall not. perish, but 
have eternal life." Let me tell those who are unsaved within these 
walls to-night what God has done for you. He has done everything 
that he could do towards your salvation. You need not wait for God 
to do anything more. In one place he asks the question what more 
•could he do. He sent his prophets and they killed them; and then 
he sent his beloved Son and they murdered him. And at last he has 
sent the Holy Ghost, to convince us of sin and how we are to be 
saved. We are all sinners; and every man and woman knows in their 
hearts that they are sinners. Now we come here to-night to tell you 
the remedy for sin, and to tell you how you are to be saved from sin. 
Jesus came into the world to save that which was lost; for thou 
knowest there is no name given unto men whereby they can be saved 
but through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And again, "He 
shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." 
No sinner need die if he but put his trust in Christ. There is no salva- 
tion in anything else, or any other name. All their word was that 
Christ died for our sake. Take the 2d chapter of Acts, and you may 
193 13 



194 HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN. 

read from there on through all the chapters; and there is hardly one 
but speaks of Christ's death and Christ crucified; of Christ dying for 
thee, or rising again for thee, of ascending into heaven for thee, and 
of coming again for thee. That is the gospel of Paul and of Peter; 
that is the gospel that Stephen preached when they condemned him to 
death. Paul preached that at Antioch, Corinth and Ephesus. Yes, 
Christ crucified — that is the remedy for sin. We hear a great many 
men murmur because God permitted sin to come into the world. 
They say it is a great mystery. Well, I say, too, it is a great mys- 
tery. You may recollect how it also was a mystery to Horatius- 
Bonar. He said that, although it was a great mystery how sin came 
into the world, it was a greater mystery how God came here to bear 
the brunt of it himself. We could speak all the time about the ori- 
gin of sin; how it came into the world, but that is not going to help 
us. If I see a man tumble into the river and going to drown, it 
would do no good for me to sit down and bow my head, and indulge 
in deep thought and reasoning how he came to get in there. The 
great question would then be, how he was to be got out. Just look 
over your own life. You can prove that you are a sinner and have 
need of repentance; or if you cannot do it to your own satifaction, 
there are some of your neighbors, no doubt, who can do it for you. 

And right here comes in the remedy for sin. In the 3d chapter of 
John, we are told how men are to be saved — namely, by him who 
was lifted up on the cross. Just as Moses lifted up the brazen ser- 
pent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that 
whosoever that believeth on him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. And here some men complain, and say that it is very 
unreasonable that they should be held responsible for the sin of a 
man six thousand years ago. It was not long ago that a man was 
talking to me about the injustice of being condemned on account of 
a man having sinned six thousand years ago. If there is a man here 
to-night who is going to answer in that way, I tell him it is not go- 
ing to do him any good. If you are lost, it will not be on account 
of Adam's sin. "Well," some say, "that is a strange statement for 
you to make, Mr. Moody." Well, I dare say you do think it strange. 
I wonder what some of the theologians think of it who are present 
here to-night. What do some of the ministers on this platform say 
to it? I would like to know. Yet, let me say it again: It will not 
be on the account of Adam's sin that you will be lost, if you are lost. 
"Why, Mr Moody, that is a paradox; how do you explain that?" 

Well, let me illustrate it, then, and perhaps you will be able to 
understand it. Suppose I am dying with consumption, which T in- 
herited from my father or mother. I did not get it by any fault of 
my own, by any neglect of my health; I inherited it, let us suppose. 
Well, I go to my physician, and to the best physicians; and they 
all give me up. They say I am incurable; I must die; I have not 



HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN. 195 

thirty days to live. Well, a friend happens to come along, and looks 
at me and says, " Moody, you have got the consumption." "I know 
it very well; I don't want any one to tell me that." " But," he says, 
" there is a remedy — a remedy, I tell you. Let me have your atten- 
tion. I want to call your attention to it. I tell you there is a rem- 
edy." "But, sir, I don't believe it; I have tried the leading physi- 
cians in this country and in Europe, and they tell me there is no 
hope." " But you know me, Moody; you have known me for years." 
"Yes, sir." "Do you think, then, I would tell you a falsehood?" 
"No." "Well, ten years ago I was as far gone. I was given up by 
the physicians to die, bat I took this medicine and it cured me. I 
am perfectly well. Look at me." "I say that it is a very strange 
case." " Yes, it may be strange; but it is a fact. That medicine 
cured me. Take this medicine, and it will cure you. Although it 
has cost me a great deal, it shall not cost you anything." Although 
the salvation of Jesus Christ is as free as the air, it cost God the 
richest jewel of heaven. He had to give his only Son; give all he 
had. He had only one Son, and he gave him. Do not make light 
of it, then, I beg of you." " Well," I say, "I would like to believe 
you, but this is contrary to my reason." Hearing this, my friend 
goes away and brings another friend to me ; and he testifies to the 
same thing. He again goes away when I do not yet believe, and 
brings in another friend, and another, and another, and another; and 
they all testify to the same thing. They say they were as bad as my- 
self; that they took the same medicine that has been offered to me, 
and it cured them. He then hands me the medicine. I dash it to 
the ground; I do not believe in its saving power; I die. The reason 
is, then, that I spurned the remedy. So it will not be because Adam 
fell, but that you spurn the remedy offered to you to save you. You 
will have darkness rather than light. How, then, shall ye escape if 
ye neglect so great salvation? There is no hope for you if you neg- 
lect the remedy. It does no good to look at the wound. If we are 
in the camp and are bitten by the fiery serpents, it will do no good 
to look at the wound. Looking at a wound will never save any one. 
What we must do is to look at the remedy, to look away to him who 
hath power to save you from your sin. 

Behold the camp of the Israelites; look at the scene that is pictured 
to your eyes. Look at New York city to-day. Both there in that 
past age, and right here in the present age, all, all are dying, because 
they neglect the remedy that is offered. Fathers and mothers are 
bearing away their children. In that arid desert is many a short and 
little grave; many a child has been bitten by the fiery serpents. 
Over yonder, they are just burying a mother; a loved mother is 
about to be laid away. All the family, weeping, gather round the 
beloved form. You hear the mournful cries, you see the bitter tears. 
The father is being borne away to his last resting-place. There is 



196 HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN. 

wailing going up, all over the camp. Tears are being shed for thou- 
sands who have passed away, and thousands more are dying; and the 
plague is raging from one end of the camp to the other. I see in one 
tent an Israelitish mother bending over the form of a beloved boy 
just coming into the bloom of life, just budding into manhood. She 
is wiping away the sweat of death, that is gathering upon his brow. 
Yet a little while, and his eyes are glazed, and life is ebbing fast 
away. Now a little while, and the boy is going. His eyes are clos- 
ing in death, and her heart-strings are crushed and bleeding. All 
at once she hears a shout in the camp. It is a great shout about 
them. What does it mean? She goes to the door of the tent. 
" What is the excitement in the camp?" she asks those passing by; 
and some one says, "Why, my good woman, haven't you heard the 
good news that has come into the camp?" " No," says the woman. 
"Good news? what is it?" "Why, haven't you heard about it? 
God has provided a remedy." "What, for the bitten Israelites? 
Why, tell me what is the remedy?" "Why, God has instructed 
Moses to make a brazen serpent and put it on a pole in the middle of 
the camp, that all who look upon it shall not die; and the shout that 
you hear is the shout of the people when they see the serpent lifted 
up." But the mother goes back into the tent, and she says: " My 
boy, I have got good news to tell you. You have not got to die. 
My boy, my boy, I have come with good tidings: you can live." He 
is already getting stupefied; he is so weak he cannot walk to the 
door of the tent. She puts her strong arms under him and lifts him 
up. "Look yonder; it is right there under the hill." But the boy 
don't see it; he says: " I don't see it. Where is it, mother?" And 
she says: "Keep looking, and you will see it." At last he catches a 
glimpse of the glistening serpent, and he is well. That is the young 
convert. Some men say, " Oh, we don't believe in sudden conver- 
sions." How long did it take to cure that boy? How long did it 
take to cure those serpent-bitten Israelites? It was just a look, and 
they were well. That is a young convert. I see him now calling on 
all those that were with him to praise God. 

He sees another young man bitten as he was, and he runs up to him 
and tells him, "You have not got to die." Oh, no," the young man 
says, "that is not possible. There is not a physician in Israel can 
cure me." He doesn't know that he has not got to die. "Why, 
haven't you heard the news? God has provided a remedy." "What 
remedy?" "Why, God has told Moses to lift up a brazen serpent, 
and all that look to that serpent shall not die." I can just see 
the young man. He is what you call an intellectual young man. 
He says to the young convert: "You don't think I am going to be- 
lieve anything like that? If the physicians in Israel can't cure me, 
you don't think that an old brass serpent on a pole is going to cure 
me?" "Why, sir; I was as bad asyourself." "You don't say so?" 



HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN. 19 7 

" Yes, I do." " That is the most astonishing thing I ever heard," 
says the young man; "I wish you would explain the philosophy of 
it." " I can't. I only know that I looked at that serpent, and I was 
cured; that did it. I just looked; that is all. My mother told me 
the reports that were being heard through the camp, and I just be- 
lieved what my mother said, and I am perfectly well." " Well, I 
don't believe you were bitten as badly as I have been." The young 
man pulls up his sleeve. "Look there! There is where I was bit- 
ten, and I tell you I was worse than you are." " Well, if I under- 
stood the philosophy of it I would look and get well." " Let 
your philosophy go; look and live." "But, sir, you ask me 
to do an unreasonable thing. If God said just take the brass 
and rub it in the bite, there might be something in the brass 
that would cure the bite. Young man, explain the philosophy 
of it." I see some people just before me that have talked that way 
since I have been here. But the young man calls in another and 
takes him into the tent and says: "Just tell him how the Lord saved 
you;" and he tells the same story, and he calls in others, and 
they all say just the same thing. And so it is with the religion of 
Jesus Christ. One and another tells the same story; and by and by 
all God's people tell in one way how they are saved — by Jesus of 
Nazareth; no other name; no other way. If all nations could talk 
one language, they would only tell one story — only name one name, 
one remedy. The young man says it is a very strange thing. "If 
the Lord had told Moses to go and get some herbs and some plants 
and roots and boil them and take the medicine, there is something in 
that. It is so contrary to my nature to do such a thing as to look at 
the serpent, that I can't do it." "You can do it." At last, the 
mother has been off out in the camp, and she says: "My boy, I have 
got just the best news in the world for you. I went out in the camp, 
and P saw hundreds very far gone; and they are all perfectly well 
now." The young man says: "I would like to get well; it is a very 
painful thought to die. I want to go into the promised land, and it 
is terrible to die here in this wilderness; but the fact is, I don't un- 
derstand it. It don't appeal to my reason. I can't believe that I 
can get well in a moment;" and the young man dies in his own un- 
belief. 

Whose fault? Whose fault is it of the unbelief here? Whose 
fault is it? God provided a remedy for this bitten Israelite — "Look 
and live." And there is eternal life for every poor bitten Israelite 
here. Look, and you can be saved, my friends, this very night. God 
has provided a remedy, and it is offered to all. The trouble is, a 
great many people are looking at the pole. Don't look at the pole; 
that don't do any good ; that is the church. You need not look at 
the church. The church is all right, but the church can't save you. 
Look beyond the pole. Look at the crucified One; look at Calvary. 



198 HOW TO BE BOEN AGAIN. 

Bear in mind, sinner, that he died for all. Look in time, sinner; and 
be you saved, if there is none else. If Christ opened the way, it is 
the way. What other name is there given whereby we can be saved? 
We don't want to look at Moses. Moses is all right in his place ; but 
Moses can't save you. You need not look to these ministers. They 
are just God's chosen instruments to hold up the serpent, to hold up 
the remedy, to hold up Christ. And so, my friends, take your eyes 
off from men. Take your eyes off from the church, but lift them up 
to Jesus, who took away the sins of the world; and there will be life 
from this hour. Thank God, we don't need an education to know 
how to look. That little girl who can't read, that little boy four 
years old who can't read, can look. That little boy, when the father 
is coming home, the mother says, "Look! look! look!" and the little 
child learns to look long before he is a year old; and that is the way 
to be saved. It is, "Look at the Lamb of God, that taketh away the 
sms of the world;" and there is life to-night, and this moment, for 
every man that is willing to look. Not look at the church, not look 
at yourselves, but look at Christ. Some people say: "There is a man; 
what faith he has got; I wish I had his faith." You might as well 
say, "I wish I had his eyes." You don't need his faith. What you 
need is his Christ. You need not be wishing for his eyes; you have 
got eyes of your own. 

Some men say, " I wish I knew just how to be saved." Just take 
God at his word, and trust his Son this very night, and this very hour, 
and this very moment. He will save you, if you will trust him. I 
imagine I hear some one saying: '• I don't feel the bite as much as 
I wish I could. I know I'm a sinner and all that, but I don't feel 
the bite enough. How much do you want to feel it? How much 
does God want you to feel it? When I was in Belfast I knew a 
doctor who had a friend, a leading surgeon there; and he told me 
that the surgeon's custom was, before performing an operation, to 
say to the patient, "Take a good look at the wound, and then fix 
your eyes on me, and don't take them off till I get through." I 
thought at the time that was a good illustration. Sinner, take a 
good look at the wound to-night; and then fix your eye on Christ, 
and don't take it off. It is better to look at the remedy than at the 
wound. See what a poor wretched sinnner you are; and then look 
at the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. He died 
for the ungodly and the sinner. Say, "I'll take him;" and may God 
help you to lift your eye to the Man on Calvary; and as the Israel- 
ites looked upon the serpent and were healed, so you may look and 
live to-night. 

After the battles of Pittsburgh Landing and Murfreesboro, I was in 
a hospital at Murfreesboro. And one night, after midnight, I was 
woke up and told that there was a man in one of the wards who 
wanted to see me. 1 went to him and he called me "chaplain" — I 



HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN. 199 

wasn't a chaplain, — and he said he wanted me to help him die. And 
I said, I'd take you right up in my arms and carry you into the king- 
dom of God, if I could; but I can't do it; I can't help you to die." 
And he said, "Who can?" I said, " The Lord Jesus Christ can. He 
came for that purpose." He shook his head and said: "He can't 
save me; I have sinned all my life." And I said, "But he came to 
save sinners." I thought of his mother in the North; and I knew 
that she was anxious that he should die right, and I thought I'd stay 
with him. I prayed two or three times, and repeated all the promises 
I could; and I knew that in a few hours he would be gone. I said I 
wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had with a man who 
was anxious about his soul. I turned to the 3d chapter of John. 
His eyes were riveted on me; and when I came to the 14th and 15th 
verses, my text to-night; he caught up the words. "As Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be 
lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have 
eternal life." He stopped me and said, "Is that there?" I said 
"Yes," and he asked me to read it again, and I did so. He leaned 
his elbows on the cot and clasped his hands together and said, " That's 
good; won't you read it again?" I read it the third time, and then 
went on with the rest of the chapter. "When I finished, his eyes were 
closed, his hands were folded, and there was a smile on his face. Oh, 
how it was lit up! What a change had come over it! I saw his lips 
quivering, and I leaned over him and heard, in a faint whisper, "As 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of 
man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, 
but have eternal life." He opened his eyes and said: "That's 
enough; don't read any more." He lingered a few hours, and then 
pillowed his head on those two verses, and then went up in one of 
Christ's chariots and took his seat in the kingdom of God. You may 
spurn God's remedy and perish; but I tell you God don't want you 
to perish. He says: "As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of 
the wicked." "Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?" May God 
help you all to look unto him and be saved! 



SEEK THE LORD. 

. " Seek ye the Lord while he may he found, call ye upon him while he is near." Isaiah 
65: 6. 

You will find my text this evening in the 55th chapter of Isaiah, 
in the 6th verse: "Seek ye the Lord while may be found, and call 
ye upon him while he is near." You that have been here for the last 
two nights will remember that I have been speaking from the text: 
"For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was 
lost." 1 have been talking about God — as to how God is seeking for 
the sinner. To-night, I want to turn the question and talk of man's 
state. Under this text we have got to-night, man is told to seek the 
Lord. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, and call ye upon 
him while he is near." Now, 1 have learned this during the past 
few years, in dealing with men; that there isn't much hope of being 
saved until they seek the Lord with all their heart. One reason that 
men do not find the Lord is, that they don't seek for him with all 
their heart. Very often you meet people who say, "Well, I don't know 
as I have any objections to be saved." Well, I don't know as I 
ever knew of any one that found Christ that had that spirit. You 
have got to have something beyond that. I said to a man, some 
time ago, that I could tell him the day he was going to be converted. 
I said to him: "I can tell you when you will be converted, although 
I ain't a prophet, and although I don't pretend to be a prophet." 
"Well," said he, "I would like to have you tell me that; for I would 
like to know, myself." " Well," I said, " you shall find him when 
you seek for him, and search for him with all your heart." In the 
29th chapter of Jeremiah, and the 13th verse, it says: "And ye 
shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your 
heart." I wish men would seek for Christ as they seek for wealth. 
I wish men would seek for Christ as they seek for position in this 
world. Man prepares his feast, and there is a great rush to see who 
will get there first. God prepares his feast, and the excuses come 
in: "I pray thee have me excused." Supposing I should state that 
last night a man came into this place and lost a very valuable pres- 
ent; something he valued a great deal more than the value of the 
present, because it was the gift of his dying mother. Suppose he 
should send up a note to me, saying: "Mr. Moody, I lost, last night, 
a very valuable diamond; and I am willing to give any one that can 
find that diamond, $20,000." I am sure there would be a great 
200 



SEEK THE LORD. 201 

search. How many do you suppose would be seeking for that dia- 
mond? I would not give much for my sermon to-night. A man 
might say: "I am poor; and if I could find that diamond, wouldn't 
that take me out of poverty and out of want?" You wouldn't wait 
until I got through my sermon; but you would be looking down at 
your feet, and under the benches. My friend, isn't the salvation of 
your soul worth more than all the diamonds that the world has seen? 
Isn't it worth more than the whole world itself, and isn't it the best 
thing you can do to-night to seek the Lord? Not only that, but it is 
a command to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon 
him while he is near. It is just as much a command for you to seek 
the Lord as it is that you sha'n't swear. It is just as much a com- 
mand, as it is that you sha'n't steal. It is a command. There are a 
great many commandments. Some people have got an idea that 
there are only ten commandments in the Bible. There are thou- 
sands of them, and this is one of them. It is the voice of the Lord 
himself. Seek him, with all your heart. Now just see how men seek 
for wealth. When the California fever — the gold fever — broke out, 
men left their wives, and left their children, and left their parents, 
and their homes and luxury, and went out to the Pacific coast, and 
slept out in the open air, and under tents, and endured want. What 
for? That they might get wealth. They could not make too great 
a sacrifice to get wealth; and when I was out there in business, 
I was amazed when news came that gold was found one hundred 
miles away. They would pack up, men, women and children, and 
away they would go. A whole town would move, just to seek 
wealth. Then they went out to Australia, in the time of the gold fever 
in that country. They were willing to make almost any sacrifice. 
Look and see these politicians work. Let one of them be nominated 
alderman, or for some position under the government, and how they 
will seek your vote. They will come around to your house early in 
the morning, just to seek your vote. They don't sleep at night; they 
are willing to do everything they can do to accomplish their pur- 
pose. 

Let us go and learn a lesson from that. If there is no reality in 
this gift of God, if it is all a myth, then let us dismiss it. If it is 
true, and we can find the Lord by seeking him, let us seek him. A 
man will go around this world for his health; he will cross oceans 
and climb steep mountains just to get his health. Thanks be to God 
that you haven't got to go around the world to get salvation; you 
haven't got to go out of this building to find salvation. " Ye shall 
find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Now there 
isn't anything a man values as he does his life. You take a man on 
a wrecked vessel; that vessel is going down, that man may be worth 
a million, and the only way he can save his life is to give up that 
million — he would do it as quick as a flash. Now the gift of God is 



202 SEEK THE LORD. 

eternal life; it is life without end. Christ says, " What shall it profit 
a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" Now is 
it true that a man can be saved here to-night? I would like to ask 
this audience a question. Is it true that a man can find the Lord 
here to-night? Now won't you just stop and think a moment? Dr. 
Paxton, do you believe the Lord can be found here to-night? Do you 
believe it, Mr. Jesup? Do you, Mr. Dodge? [Mr. Dodge — I do.] 
Now, my friend, do you believe it? Young man, do you believe 
that the Lord can be found here to-night? If he can be found, why 
not seek for him, and why not look? This cold, bleak night may be 
the night of your salvation. If it is true that the Lord is worth more 
than the whole world, and he can be found by seeking, why not seek 
for him? — not with half a heart, but with all your heart. 

I read a number of years ago of a vessel that was wrecked. The 
life-boats were not enough to take all the passengers. A man, who 
swimming in the water, swam up to one of the life-boats that were 
full, and seized it with his hand. They tried to prevent him, but 
the man was terribly in earnest about saving his life; and one of the 
men in the boat just drew a sword and cut off his hand. But the 
man didn't give up; he reached out the other hand. He was terri- 
bly in earnest; he wanted to save his life. But the man in the boat 
took the sword and cut off his other hand. But the man did not give 
up. He swam up to the boat and seized it with his teeth. Some of 
them said, " Let us not cut his head off;" and the}' - drew him in. 
That man was terribly in earnest; and my friends, if you want to get 
into the kingdom of God, you will seek your soul's salvation to-night. 
Be in earnest once as for your life, and seek the kingdom of God 
with all your heart; and you shall find it to-night. It will be the 
night of your salvation. It is a good time to seek the Lord while 
the Spirit of God is abroad in the community. I contend that this 
is a proof that the Lord can be found here to-night, because I don't 
believe there has been a night but that some have found him. Last 
night a brother came to my private room, and called me and said, 
"I want to introduce you to some one;" and there stood a wife, her 
face lit up with joy. She wanted to tell me that her husband was 
converted. She said: "I have been praying for him these twenty 
years, and he has found the Lord to-night." " Seek ye the Lord 
while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." 

How many men were there that were converted in the great re- 
vival of '57 and '58: and yet some people cry out against revivals. 
They had rather be converted at any time than during a revival. It 
was not long after the revival of '57 and '58 that the nation was del- 
uged with blood, and half a million of men laid down their lives. 
Wasn't it the best thing they could have done, to seek the Lord 
then? It was my privilege to be in the army at that time. I was 
by their cots, and I saw them die. I never saw a man all through 



SEEK THE LORD. 203 

the war that regretted that he became a Christian. The best thing 
they could do was to call upon the Lord. It was a great calamity, and 
came right home to the heart of the nation. We are just now, I am 
afraid, going to have some of this sad work. I believe that we are 
even now on the eve of just such work. I believe that judgments 
are going to happen upon this nation again. Grace always precedes 
judgments. A great revival is in progress all over the country. So 
there was in Jerusalem a day of grace; but the opportunity was 
spurned. Jerusalem and the country took no heed to their ways, and 
soon Titus appeared with a great army and besieged it, and more 
than 1,100,000 people perished. Those men rejected the gospel and 
the Word of God. So at the present day men won't call upon Christ 
when he may be found, or seek him when he is near. All along in 
the history of the church it is remarked that before some great ca- 
lamity has fallen upon the earth there has been a great day of grace, 
offering salvation to those who will accept it. Before God has pun- 
ished people, he holds out before them a chance to repent and to 
escape his wrath. 

And now we hear Jesus calling to repentance throughout all the 
land. It is time, my friends, to be up and doing. Save yourselves; 
and then plead with your friends, and bring them to Jesus. Tell 
them the glad tidings, and bring them into the fold of the Good 
Shepherd. If we are faithful now and watch for souls, we shall see 
in every town and city thousands who will accept Christ. It is time 
for us to go out and say to our friends and relatives: "Come in; the 
Lord is coming, the Lord is at work. Jesus of Nazareth is passing 
through the city. Let us call upon him while he may be found; let 
us implore him to save us while he is near." The very text implies 
that the time is come when the world should throw off its sloth and 
wake to repentance. The text implies that God is near and pleads 
with his people, that the time and the Son of God are near now. 
Isn't it true that he is here to-night? Isn't it true that he is seeking 
for you when you seek i^v him? Seek, then, the Lord while he may 
be found; call upon him while he is near. Mr. Sankey sung to-night 
about those virgins. We read that five sought to gain admission too 
late. There was a time that they might have called upon the Lord; 
there was a time when, had they sought, they would have found him. 
But they slumbered and slept, until it was too late. Then they cried, 
but the door was shut — the day of grace was over. And so it 
may be the same to you. The day of grace may be drawing to a 
close with you, too. It may be that I am speaking to many here 
for the last time. This may be the last year they may have on earth. 
Tho prophecy may be true in regard to you and me, "This year thou 
shalt die." Is it or isn't it a time to seek the kingdom of God — to 
seek his face while Christ is calling upon us to repent, while the 
Spirit of God is moving upon our hearts? Isn't it the very best 



204 SEEK THE LORD. 

time to seek the Lord while he may be found? Those antediluvian 
people called upon Noah to open the door of the ark and take them; 
but it was too late. God will shut the door against you, too. You 
will soon be without hope. Undoubtedly these men, women and 
children called upon God to save them on that terrible day; but the 
day of grace was over for them. The day of wrath then had come, 
and the day of judgment had fallen upon them. Oh, who shall stand 
on the day of wrath? When the Lord shall shake the earth, what 
shall then save the souls of men? The day of grace is here. Save 
yourselves. Wash yourselves in his precious blood and be redeemed. 
Oh, this very night, this very hour, let there be a cry for salvation. 
In the 10th chapter of Romans it is written, "For whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I heard of a man 
away off in the mining district, who had wandered from his house 
and got lost. In that region the ground is full of holes, and some 
pretty deep ones too. But it was night, and he could not make his 
way along. Had he undertaken to move on, there were the holes 
before him; and every step might precipitate him into a cavern. He 
did not know what to do, and he could not stir a step. At last he 
commenced to cry out, "Help! help! help!" and his cry was heard. 
They came with lanterns, and brought him safely out from his dan- 
ger. The depths of sin are surrounding you; the next step may 
land you into darkness and death. Old man, do you hear? Young 
lady, do not laugh at it. Don't make light of this warning voice. 
"Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is 
near." 

Let me warn you against the next verse. A great many people 
put the 7th verse ahead of the 6th. " Let the wicked forsake his 
way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." If we would be saved 
call upon God first, and then God will give you help; and by his 
power you can then turn away from sin and from your evil thoughts, 
and will get pardon. But you haven't power to give up your evil 
courses until you call upon God, and until he gives you strength. 
After you have called upon the Lord, you must receive him when he 
comes; you must make room for him. He is gone to make room 
for you, and you must make room for him. I once found a man in the 
inquiry room who was puzzled to know how there would be room 
for the saved in heaven. I tell you, my friends, as I told him, you 
needn't borrow trouble on that account. If he finds he will not 
have room for you, or me, or for any of his chosen people in the 
heaven that he now has, he will make another. Can he not make 
another heaven by a word? Can he not make another place of hap- 
piness as easy as he made the present one? The Lord God of 
heaven can make plenty of room for you. You must not give that 
as an excuse. The Lord can make all the room he wants. Now, my 
friends, let me ask you this question. In all candor, why don't you 



SEEK THE LORD. 205 

settle the question now? Will the Son of God have more power 
than he has to-night? Will he be more ready to use it for your sal- 
vation at any other time than he is to-night? Hasn't he said that 
all power is given unto him, both in heaven and on earth? Has he 
not the power to save every one here? Is he not able to save, even 
unto the uttermost? Hasn't he the power and hasn't he the will? 
Hasn't he said: "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked. Oh, turn ye, turn ye, why should ye die, oh, 
house of Israel?" If you turn now and call upon him, he will forgive 
you your sins. He will forgive every one all his sins, no matter how 
many they are. He will save you, if you truly repent, and write 
your name in the Book of Life. But you must call upon him with 
the heart. 

As Spurgeon remarks, the Bible does not say that you must have 
new heads, or that you must seek him with your head; but it says 
you must have new hearts, and must seek him with your heart. If 
it meant head, it would have said so. Seek ye the Lord, therefore, 
with your hearts; and Christ will enter into your hearts, and not 
into your heads. Give Christ your whole heart, and he will enter 
into it. If your heart is all right, your head will be also; for out of 
the heart proceeds all evil. Let that reservoir of sin be broken up 
and emptied, and all the rest of you will come around right. Is 
there one here to-night who will not cry out, " God be merciful to 
me, a sinner"? "Lord, have mercy upon me"? Why not call upon 
him? Why not seek the Lord now? Why not make up your mind 
that you will not leave the room until the great question of eternity 
is settled? If it is true what these gentlemen have said here to- 
night, when I asked them the question, that the Lord could be found, 
why don't you find him? Why should you let the night pass with- 
out seeking him? It is commanded, "Seek the Lord while he may 
be found." Don't put it off until it is too late. Don't neglect sal- 
vation. Some people say, "Why, what have I done?" I tell you, 
if you have done nothing but neglect salvation, you will go to death 
and ruin. . Look at the man in the river in his boat; he is not row- 
ing; he is making no effort; but he has his hands folded, and is let- 
ting his boat drift down the stream toward the rapids. The current 
is taking him on, without any help from him; he will soon go over 
the rapids into the jaws of death. All he has to do is to sit still and 
be lost. Yes, I tell you if you don't actually do any sin, yet if you 
neglect Christ and neglect salvation as a gift from God, you must 
perish. I am told that there were two men seen above the falls of 
Niagara. They were drinking champagne and carousing. They 
had no thought of danger; they formed no perception of the end 
that was awaiting them. They sang and they drank. But by and 
by a warning voice came to their ears. They looked at the friend 
on shore, but paid no attention. They even mocked him; they lift- 



206 SEEK THE LORD. 

ed up the bottle, drank to him, and shook the bottle at him. Some 
one further on, seeing their danger, also undertook to warn them; 
but they treated his voice with laughter and derision. There are 
some here to-night that act just the same way. You come here and 
laugh, and make light of the solemn services, and ridicule the Word 
of God. These men mocked the danger also. They drifted a little 
further on, when a third voice was lifted up to give them notice of 
the approaching rapids. But the men still mocked on; and the cur- 
rent still took them on every second nearer to the great and fatal 
plunge. But they soon saw the water going over the falls, and in 
wild desperation seized the oars. They battled against the current 
with all their strength. Too late! too late! They had neglected it 
too long, and with a wild cry they were forever engulfed. What a 
picture! And yet hundreds and thousands have died just the same 
way. 

By and by will come the piercing cry, "It's too late !" To-night I 
plead with you to neglect it no longer. Some of you here may hear 
the appeal for the last time. Oh, may the Holy Spirit open your 
eyes to-night! While we were in Europe, a man came into one of 
the meetings in the coal region; and when the audience was dis- 
missed, he was seen to remain, standing against a post. One of the 
elders approached him, and asked him why he remained. He said he 
had made up his mind not to leave that church until he found the 
kingdom of God. The elder remained with him for a long time, and 
at last the miner made a surrender. The next day he went into the 
coal-pit, and before night the mine fell in and buried him. He was 
taken from the ruins just before life became extinct, and was heard 
to say: "It is a good thing I settled it last night." Wasn't it a good 
thing? Young lady, what say you? Young man, what do you think? 
When Mr. Sankey and I were in the North of England, I was preach- 
ing one evening, and before me sat a lady who was a skeptic. When 
I had finished, I asked all who were anxious to remain. Nearly all 
remained, herself among the number. I asked her if she was a 
Christian: and she said she was not, nor did she care to be. I 
prayed for her there. On inquiry, I learned that she was' a lady of 
oood social position, but very worldly. She continued to attend the 
meetings, and in a week after I saw her in tears. After the sermon 
I went to her, and asked her if she was of the same mind as before. 
She replied that Christ had come to her, and she was happy. Last 
autumn I had a note from her husband, saying she was dead, that 
her love for her Master had continually increased. When I read 
that note, I felt paid for crossing the Atlantic. She worked sweetly 
after her conversion, and was the means of winning many of her 
fashionable friends to Christ. Oh, may you seek the Lord while he 
may be found, and may you call upon him while you may. 



GRACE. 

••For the law is given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Johnl: 17. 

I am going to take, to-night, a subject, rather than a text. I want 
to talk to you about free Grace. I say free grace; perhaps I had 
better drop the word "free," and say just "Grace." There is a ser- 
mon just in the meaning of the word. It is one of these words that 
are very little understood at the present time, like the word gospel. 
There are a great many that are partakers of the Spirit of Christ, or 
of grace, that don't know its meaning. I think it is a good idea to 
go to Webster's dictionary and look up the meaning of these words 
that we hear so often, but don't fully understand. You seldom go into a 
religious assembly but you hear the word "grace;" and yet I was a 
partaker of the grace of God for years before I knew what it meant. 
I could not tell the difference between grace and law. Now grace 
means unlimited mercy, undeserved favor, or unmerited love. I had a 
man come to me to-day to see me, and his plea was that he was not 
fit to be saved. He said there was no hope for him, because he had 
sinned all his life, and there was nothing good in him. I was very 
much gratified to hear him say that. There is hope for that man — 
and I suppose he is here to-night; and there is hope for any man who 
thinks there is nothing good in him. That was the lesson Christ 
tried to teach the Jews — the lesson of grace. But they were try- 
ing to prove themselves to be better than other people. They were 
of the seed of Abraham, and under the Mosaic law, and better than 
the people about them. 

Now let us get at the source of this stream that has been flowing 
through the world these hundreds of years. You know that men 
have been trying to find the source of the Nile. Wouldn't it be as 
profitable to try to find the source of grace, because this is a stream 
we are all interested in? I want to call your attention to the 1st 
chapter of John, the 14th and 17th verses: "And the Word was made 
flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of 
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Then the 
17th verse: "For the law is given by Moses, but grace and truth 
came by Jesus Christ." Then in the 5th chapter of Romans, the 
15th verse: "But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if, 
through the oifence of one, many be dead, much more the grace of 
God, and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath 
abounded unto many." There it is called the free gift — it abounded 
207 



208 GRACE. 

unto many. Then in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians, the 1st chap- 
ter and the 3d verse: "Grace be unto you and peace from God our 
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on 
your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ." 
Now bear in mind that he is the God of all grace. We wouldn't 
know anything about grace, if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. Men talk 
about grace, but they don't know much about it. These bankers, 
they talk about grace. If you want to borrow a thousand dollars, if 
you can give good security, they will let you have it, and take your 
note, and you give your note, and say: "So many months after date, 
I promise to pay a thousand dollars." Then they give you what 
they call three days' grace, but they make you pay interest for those 
three days. That ain't grace. Then when your note comes due, if 
you can't pay but $950, they would sell everything you have got and 
make you pay the fifty dollars. Grace is giving the interest, prin- 
cipal and all. I tell you, if you want to get any grace, you must 
know God. He is the God of all grace. He wants to deal in grace; 
he wants to deal with that unmerited mercy, undeserved favor, un- 
merited love; and if God don't love man until he is worthy of his 
love, he won't have time for very much love for him. He is the God 
of all grace. 

Unto whom does he offer grace? I would like to have you turn 
to your Bibles, to two or three texts; to the 21st chapter of Matthew, 
the 28th verse: " But what think ye? A certain man had two sons, 
and he came to the first and said, Son, go work to-day in my vine- 
yard. He answered and said, I will not; but afterward, he repented, 
and went. And he came to the second and said likewise. But he 
answered and said, I go, sir; and went not. Whether of them twain 
did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus 
saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the 
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." Why? Because 
he loved those publicans and harlots more than he did those Phari- 
sees? No; it was because they wouldn't repent, because they 
wouldn't take grace. They didn't believe they needed the grace of 
God. A man who believes that he is lost, is near salvation. Why? 
Because you haven't got to work to convince him that he is lost. 
Now here is a man that said he wouldn't go, and then he saw he was 
wrong, and repented, and went; and this man was the man that 
grace held up. Any man or any woman here to-night who will re- 
pent and turn to God, God will save him. It don't make any differ- 
ence what your life has been in the past. He will turn to any that 
will turn to him. I was preaching one Sunday in a church where 
there was a fashionable audience, and after I got through the ser- 
mon, I said: "If there are any that would like to tarry a little while, 
and would like to stay and talk, I would be glad to talk with you." 
They all got up, turned around, and went out. I felt as though I 



GEACE. 209 

was abandoned. When I was going out I saw a man getting behind 
the furnace. He hadn't any coat on and he was weeping bitterly. 
I said, " My friend, what is the trouble?" He said: "You told me 
to-night that I could be saved; that the grace of God would reach 
me. You told me that there wasn't a man so far gone but the grace 
of God would reach him." He said: " I am an exile from my family; 
I have drunk up $20,000 within the last few months; I have drunk 
up the coat off my back; and if there is hope for a poor sinner like 
me, I should like to be saved." It was just like a cup of refreshment 
to talk to that man. I didn't dare give him money, for fear that he 
would drink it up ; but I got him a place to stay that night, took an 
interest in him, and got him a coat, and six months after that, when 
I left Chicago for Europe — four months after — that man was one of 
the most earnest Christian men I knew. The Lord had blessed him 
wonderfully. He was an active, capable man. The grace of God 
can save just such, if they will only repent. I don't care how low 
he has become, the grace of God can purge him of all sin, and place 
him among the blessed. In proportion as man is a sinner, much 
more does the grace of God abound. There isn't a man but thatthe 
grace of God will give him the victory, if he will only accept it. 

I want you to turn a moment to a passage you will find in the 7th 
chapter of Mark: "And from thence he arose, and went into the 
borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have 
no man know it; but he could not be hid. For a certain woman 
whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard him, and came and fell 
at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syro- Phoenician by nation; 
and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her 
daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, 
for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto the dogs. 
And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord; yet the dogs under 
the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For 
this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter." 
Now, just see how Christ dealt with that woman — a Syro-Phoenician, 
a Gentile; she didn't belong to the seed of Abraham at all. He 
came to save his own; but his own received him not. Christ was 
willing to give to the Jews grace. He dealt in grace with a liberal 
hand; but those that he was desirous to shower grace upon wouldn't 
take it. But this woman belonged to a different people — and just 
hear her story. I wonder what would happen if Christ should come 
and speak that way now? Suppose he should come into this assem- 
bly, and take any woman here and call her a dog. Why, that Syro- 
Phcenician woman might have said: "Call me a dog! Talk to me 
like that! Why I know a woman who belongs to the seed of Abra- 
ham who lives down near me, and she is the worst and meanest 
woman in the neighborhood. I am as good as she is any day." She 
mi<rht have gone away without a blessing, if she had not felt her ut- 
14 



210 



GRACE. 



ter destitution and lost condition. But Jesus only said that to her 
just to try her; and after calling her a dog, she only broke forth into 
a despairing cry, "Yes, Lord — yes, Lord." Christ had said it was 
more blessed to give than to receive. She took his place and re- 
ceived his blessing and his commands. She was satisfied to be given 
only a crumb, as long as he heard her petition. So, instead of giv- 
ing her a crumb, she got a whole loaf. And so will you get the full- 
est beneficence of Christ, if you lift your heart up to him. Oh, that 
many would but just take her place, understand how low and un- 
worthy they are, and cry unto Jesus. If you do, Christ will lift you 
up and bless you. But then the great trouble is, that people 
will not confess that they have need of grace. Such miserable Phar- 
isaism is the worst feature of the present time. They think they can 
get salvation without the grace of God. The old saying is, that when 
you come to Jesus as a beggar you go away as a prince. Instead of 
doing that, they feel so self-confident and proud that they come al- 
ways as princes and go away beggars. If you want the Son of God 
to deal with you, come as a beggar, and he will have mercy upon 
you. Look at the great crowd going up to the Temple; they feel 
they have strength of themselves, and all pass on, proud and haugh- 
ty, except one poor man, who smites himself on the breast and says, 
"God be merciful to me, a sinner." 

If you want to see the idea that the Jews had as to who was 
worthy, and how they thought that that kind of worthiness should be 
rewarded, just take your Bibles and look at the 7th chapter of Luke. 
It reads there: "Now when he had ended all his sayings in the au- 
dience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain 
centurion's servant, who was dear unto him, was sick and ready to 
die. And when he heard of Jesus he sent unto him the elders of the 
Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And 
when they came to Jesus they besought him instantly," — now, just 
listen — "saying that he was worthy for whom he should do this." 
Yes, that was the Jews' idea of the reason he should come, because 
he was "worthy." What made him worthy? "For he loveth our 
nation, and he hath built us a synagogue." He was not worthy be- 
cause he was a sinner; oh, no; not at all. But he was worthy be- 
cause "he hath built us a synagogue." Ha! that was the same old 
story — the story of the present day. There is a great deal of that 
now. Give that man the most prominent place in the church; let 
him have the best pew, and the one furthest up in church, because 
he is "worthy." He has built the church, perhaps; or he has en- 
dowed a seminary. No matter where his money came from. He 
may have got it gambling in stocks, or doing something else of a like 
character; but he has given it to us. Oh, yes, he is worthy. He 
may have made his enormous gains by distilling whiskey, even. Make 
room for him, he has got a gold ring on ; make room for her, she has. 



GEACE. 211 

got a good dress on. So said the Jews: Now, Lord, come at once, 
for he hath built us a synagogue. Oh, he is worthy! You must not 
refuse or halt; you must come at once. That was the Jews' idea, 
and it is the idea of the world to-day. But how do you expect to 
get grace that way? The moment you put it on the ground of be- 
ing worthy of it, then to receive it would not be grace at all. It 
would only amount to this: that if the Lord should give a man grace 
because he owed it to him, he would only be paying a debt. Jesus, 
however, went with them; in this instance, to teach them a lesson. 
Luke goes on to say: "Then Jesus went with them. And when he 
was not far from the House, the centurion sent friends to him, saying 
unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou 
shouldst enter under my roof." That is the kind of humility that 
we want; that is the kind of men we are hunting after — a man that 
is not worthy. See how quick he will be saved, when he is in that 
frame of mind. I suppose that some one had run in to tell this centu- 
rion that Jesus was approaching the house. And the centurion sent 
to him to say he was not worthy that he should come unto him; 
"neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee; but say in a 
word, and my servant shall be healed." This centurion had faith, at 
any rate. If he thought himself unworthy to come to Jesus, he 
sent friends; them that he considered better than himself. How com- 
mon it is to think yourself good, and all other people bad! It is good 
to see a man consider himself a poor unworthy man. " God, I didn't 
think myself worthy to come unto thee; but say the word, and my 
servant shall be healed." Thank God, he had faith! No matter 
how many sins we have, if we only have faith. In this case, because 
he had faith, Jesus healed his servant, without coming to him at all. 
He hadn't to go to the house to examine his pulse, and see his tongue. 
Then he didn't have to write out a prescription, and send him to the 
drug store. No: he said: "All right; your servant shall live." 
"For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers 
and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he 
cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus 
heard these things, he marveled." It is only twice, I think, that 
Jesus marveled. He marveled at the unbelief of the Jews, and, 
again, at the faith of the centurion. "And turned him about, and 
said unto the people that followed him, 'I say unto you, I have not 
found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' " Here is a Gentile, he said in 
effect, here is a man not of the seed of Abraham; and yet what faith 
he shows! Why, here is a centurion; and he has more faith than the 
chosen people of God. Jesus granted the petition at once. When 
he saw a genuine check presented for payment, he cashed it at 
once. He pays instantly in the gold of heaven, without any hesita- 
tion or discount. "And they that were sent, returning to the house, 
found the servant whole that had been sick." Found him perfectly 



212 



GEACE. 



well, leaping and dancing around the house, praising God. He had 
been at the point of death one minute; and the next, he had been 
made perfectly well. 

You may be made whole, too, friends. You may even be on the 
borders of hell; and yet be made an inhabitant of the kingdom of 
heaven. Think of this, you men that are the slaves of strong drink. 
You may be mangled and bruised by sin; but the grace of God can 
save you. He is the God of grace. I hope that grace will flow into 
your souls to-night. Christ is the sinner's friend. If you have read 
your Bibles carefully, you will see that Christ always took the side 
of the sinner. Of course, he came down on the hypocrites, and well 
he might. Those haughty Pharisees, he took sides against; but 
where a poor, miserable, humble penitent sinner came to him for 
grace, he always found it. You always read that he deals in grace; 
and to-night he will have mercy upon you that confess your sins to 
him. If you want to be saved, come right straight to him. He 
comes to deal in grace; he comes to bless, and why don't you let 
him? Let him bless you now. Let him take your sins away now. 
A man said to me the other night, " I feel I have got to do some- 
thing." I said to him: "If this grace is unmerited and free, what 
are you going to do?" And I warn you to-night, my friends, against 
trying to work out your own salvation. It really is a question 
whether it don't keep more people out of the kingdom of God than 
anything else. When at Newcastle, I was preaching one night, and 
I said that grace was free; that all were to stop trying to be saved. 
A woman came down and said to me: "Oh! how wretched I am; I 
have been trying to be a Christian, and yet you have been telling me 
to-night not to try." "Has that made you wretched?" I asked. 
"Yes; if I stop trying what will become of me?" I said: "But if grace is 
free what are you going to do? You can not get it by working." She 
said, "I can't understand it." ""Well, let me call your attention now 
to a few passages of Scripture." I turn to the 2d chapter of Ephe- 
sians, and the 8th and. 9th verses: " For by grace are ye saved, 
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God:" — 
"Not of works, lest any man should boast." 

Salvation is a gift from God. If a man worked it out, he would 
boast of what he had done and say, "Oh, I did it." A Scotchman 
once said it took two persons to effect his salvation — "God gave me his 
grace, and I fought against him." It is not then for men to work, 
or they will boast of it; and when a man boasts, you may be sure 
there is no conversion. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nei- 
ther can the leopard change his spots. We do not work to get sal- 
vation ; but we work it out after we get it. If we are ever saved, it 
must be by grace alone. If you pay anything for salvation, it ceases 
to be a gift. But God isn't down here selling salvation. And what 
have you to give him, if he was? What do you suppose you would 



GR4-CE. 213 

give? Ah, we're bankrupt. "The gift of God is eternal life;" that's 
your hope. "He that climbeth up some other way, the same is a 
thief and a robber." Now, who will take salvation to-night? Oh, 
you may have it, if you will. "To him that worketh, the reward is 
not reckoned of grace but of death." The difference between Martha 
and Mary was, that Martha was trying to do something for the Lord; 
and Mary was just taking something from him, as a gift. He'll smile 
upon you, if you'll just take grace from him. "It's to him that work- 
eth not but believeth," that blessings come. After you get to the 
Cross, there you may work all you can. If you are lost, you go to 
hell in the full blaze of the gospel. That grace is free to all — free to 
every policeman here, every fireman, every usher, every singer, every 
man, woman and child, every reporter, all of you. What more do 
you want God to do than he has done ? Oh, I hope the grace of God 
will reach every heart here. Oh, be wise, and open the door of your 
hearts, and let in the King of glory. You'll be saved when you be- 
lieve. It is written: "For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing 
salvation to all." If you are lost, there is one thing you must do; 
and that is, trample the grace of God under your feet. It won't be 
because you can't be saved, but because you won't. Young man, 
will you be saved to-night? It's a question for you yourself to set- 
tle. If we could settle it for you, we would; but you must believe 
for yourself. Christ said to that poor sinning woman, "Neither do I 
condemn thee. Go and sin no more." Oh, sinner, hear those words. 
Oh, may the grace of God reach your hearts to-night. 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST. 

" What think ye of Christ." Matthew, 22: 42. 

We have for our text this evening a part of the 42d verse of the 
22d chapter of Matthew: "What think ye of Christ?" We find in 
this chapter that the Pharisees had made two attempts to entangle 
him in his talk and in his teaching. The Sadducees tried it; but 
they were silenced by the wisdom of Christ. After they had ap- 
pealed to Christ, Christ turns and asks them a question. He says: 
"What think ye of Christ, whose Son is he?" And they said, "He 
is the son of David." Then says Christ, " How then did David call 
him his Lord?" And they were silenced forever. The Sadducees did 
not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. They would never have 
put him to death if they had believed him to be the God-man — what 
he proclaimed himself to be. Now, before I go on, I want to ask 
you a question — not what you think of this church or that church; 
not what you think of this minister or that minister; nor what you 
think of this creed or that creed; not what you think of this denomi- 
nation or that denomination. The question is not what do you think 
of this belief or that belief; but, "What think ye of Christ?" And 
I think it is a proper question. There isn't a noted public man in 
this country but that if I ask what you think of him, you would give 
your opinion, quite freely. I hear some of you going out of the hall 
giving your opinion about the sermon, and sometimes it isn't very 
complimentary; but that is nothing. The question is not what you 
think of the preaching, or what you think of the singing; but, 
"What think ye of Christ?" It is of very little account what you 
think of the minister; it is of very little account what you think of 
this dogma or that dogma; but it is of vast importance what you 
think of Christ. 

I don't think there is any one in this hall, unless it is some little 
infant, but ought to have an opinion about Christ. I would like to 
talk about him as a preacher; for there never was a preacher that 
preached as he did. He preached in words so very plain that little 
boys like these down here, and little girls could understand them; 
yet the deepest theologians could not understand their meaning. 
Coming down to-day I heard the little birds singing, and I could not 
help but think of his saying: "The foxes have holes, and the birds 
of the air have nests; but the son of man hath not where to lay his 
214 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 215 

head." He makes even the rocks preach. I am told by travelers in 
the East, that there isn't a spot that hasn't got some sermon of his. 
He just touched them, and he made them preach. There isn't a 
prodigal in New York but that knows the story of the Prodigal Son. 
He drew a picture of the prodigal so vivid that you can't forget it. 
Try as much as they will to wipe out the picture, they can't forget 
it; it is like a nail in a sure place. Oh! he is a wonderful preacher. 
I have got a boy six years old, and sometimes he comes and tumbles 
into bed with me — sometimes much earlier than I wish he would — 
and wants to have me tell him a story; and there is no story inter- 
ests him so much as the stories that Christ preaches. Yes, I would 
like to have time to talk to you, and ask you what you think of him 
as a preacher. 

I want you just to ask yourselves this question, Do you believe in 
Christ? Do you believe that he was the Son of God? Do you be- 
lieve that he was the God-man? Do you believe that he was with 
God before the morning stars sang together, and voluntarily left 
heaven and came down into this world? Whose son was he? Was 
he the son of man and the Son of God? Who was he, the God-man? 
That is the question. Now, if I had come into this city to find out 
about some one, to find out about his character, who he was, what he 
was, there would be two classes of people I would go to see. I 
wouldn't go to his friends only; I would go to his enemies; I would 
go to both classes. I would go to his friends and go to his enemies, 
and see what his enemies had to say about him, before I gave judg- 
ment about the man. I have got a few witnesses I want to examine, 
and I will just imagine my audience is the jury. My witnesses are 
the men that talked with Christ — the bitterest enemies that he had. 
The first I would like to summon into this court would be the Sad- 
ducees. What was it they had against the Son of God? Why he 
proclaimed the resurrection; and they didn't believe in the resurrec- 
tion. They didn't believe in future punishment. They didn't be- 
lieve that they were going to rise again. And they put a question 
to Christ: "Now here is a woman married seven times; whose wife 
will she be in the resurrection?" and Christ answered that question. 
And then the Pharisees went about planning now they might destroy 
him. "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them" — that 
was all they could bring against him. That is what we like to glory 
in. Suppose we could summon the officers that arrested him. The 
Sanhedrim sent out officers to arrest the Son of God. Where did 
they find him! Did they find him breaking the law? Well, these 
officers, they found him in Gethsemane. What was he doing? Pray- 
ing for a lost world. There he was, the drops of blood trickling 
down upon his cheeks; for we are told that he sweat great drops of 
blood. They set false witnesses to testify against him. They couldn't 
find any for a long time; and at last they found two men that would 



216 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 

come in and swear falsely, and what did they swear to? They heard 
him say, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up again in three 
days." "Destroy this temple," that is — as explained by John — de- 
stroy this body, and he would raise it up. Let us bring in Caiaphas, 
the highest ecclesiastical potentate of the earth, president of the 
Sanhedrim, the chief priest; and let Caiaphas open his lips, and let 
him tell us why he condemned the Son of God to death. They did 
not go and summon his friends; they did not go and bring up Zac- 
cheus of Jericho; they did not bring the poor man that had those 
legions of devils cast out of him ; they did not bring the blind man 
of Jericho — they brought his enemies. Let Caiaphas tell his own 
story — suppose he stood in my place. Caiaphas, just tell us what 
was the evidence you found against the Son of God. He said to him, 
"I adjure thee by the living God, Art thou the Son of God?" And 
he said, "I am." And Caiaphas says: "When I heard it, I tore my 
mantle and said he was guilty of blasphemy." That is what we 
glory in, his being the Son of God. Stephen said, when the heavens 
were opened, he looked in and saw him standing at the right hand of 
God. That is why they condemned the Son of God, just because he 
was the God-man. If he wasn't divine, they did right to put him to 
death; but he was. 

Let Pilate come in; now he is an impartial witness. He is no 
Jew; he has no prejudice against Christ. Pilate, just speak out now 
and tell us why you condemned him to the scourge, and to be cruci- 
fied, and why you wrote up there upon the cross: "This is Jesus of 
Nazareth, King of the Jews." Tell us, what did you find in him — 
what fault? And hear what Pilate says, "I find no fault in him." 
Now men condemn Pilate, and yet there are a great many men worse 
than Pilate; for they find fault in Jesus Christ. Said he, "I will 
chastise this man and let him go; for I find no fault in him." But I 
have got a woman we can bring in as a witness; it was Pilate's 
wife. Whose messenger is that that comes from the palace? He 
brings a message from Pilate's wife: " Have nothing to do with that 
just man; for 1 have suffered much in a dream through him." She 
thought he was a just man. Yea, my friends, I will bring in Judas, 
the very prince of traitors. Suppose I should say: " Judas, you sold 
the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver; you betrayed him; you 
knew more about him than Caiaphas; you knew more about him than 
Pilate. Come, now, Judas, tell us why you betrayed Christ? You 
were with him; you ate with him, and drank with him, and slept 
with him; tell us what you think of him?" I can imagine him 
throw down the thirty pieces of silver, as he cries in agony, " I be- 
trayed innocent blood." Oh, yes, it is easy to condemn Judas nowa- 
days; but how many men are worse than that! And he went out and 
put an end to his existence. Now bear in mind, I am not calling up 
his friends; I am calling up his enemies. The testimony is perfect- 



WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST? 217 

ly overwhelming in favor of Jesus Christ, that he was the Son of God y 
as well as the son of David. But here is another witness, and that 
is the Roman centurion. He occupied the same position as the sher- 
iff does now. This centurion of the Roman band had to go to Cal- 
vary and put the Son of God to death. He is a Gentile, and an im- 
partial judge; let him tell us what he thinks of the Son of God. 
Come, now, centurion, you had charge of the execution of Jesus of 
Nazareth; you were there when he died. Here is his testimony: 
"Truly, this was the Son of God." That is what he thought; and 
to me it is one of the most striking things in all Scripture that God 
made every man testify that he was not guilty. I will go further. 
I will take the very devils in hell, for God made them testify; and 
what did they testify? They called him, " the Son of the Most High 
God." They knew him. "We adjure thee by the living God, why 
hast thou come here to torment us before our time?" And, my 
friends, what think ye to-day? Was he the Son of God? and did he 
die for a sinful world? What think ye of Christ to-day? Whose 
Son is he? 

I wish I had time to examine his friends. It would take all day and 
all night, and I think the whole of the week. Suppose I could ex- 
amine that mighty preacher, the prince of preachers, a man that with 
his eloquence — and he had the eloquence of heaven — drew all men 
to hear him. All Judea and Jerusalem came down from the moun- 
tains to hear him. He drew the cities of Judea into the wilderness, 
to hear him preach. What mighty power he had ! Now, let us call 
in this wilderness preacher, who looks more like Elijah than any oth- 
er prophet since Elijah. Ask John the Baptist, What think ye, 
John, of Christ? Hear his testimony: " I bear record, this is the Son 
of God." That is what he thought; he forever settled that question. 
Another time he says of Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, that 
taketh away the sins of the world." John didn't have but one text 
after that: " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of 
the world." John said: "He must increase, but I must decrease." 
O sinner, what do you think of him to-day? Do you think he will 
save you if you trust him? Let us bring in some more of these 
witnesses. There is Peter. You know there was a time he swore 
he never knew him. Do you think he would say now with a curse, 
"I never knew him?" We are told that he was crucified with his 
head downward, because he was not worthy to be crucified in the 
same way that Christ was. Peter thought a good deal of him. I 
might bring in doubting Thomas; he didn't believe that Christ had 
risen. But Christ says: "Thomas, did you say that you wouldn't 
believe unless you saw? Put your fingers in my side and feel the 
wound there; put your lingers in the palm of my hand and feel the 
wound there;" and Thomas cried out, "My Lord and my God." 
Convinced of the divinity of Jesus Christ, his cloud of unbelief was 



218 WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST ? 

scattered to the four winds of heaven. If I should call up that be- 
loved disciple who knew him better than any one else upon earth, it 
would take a great while to find out what John thought of him. I 
could just summon into this audience another witness, and one that 
had such a hatred against Christ. The Frenchman said: "It took 
twelve fishermen to establish the kingdom of Christ; and one French- 
man could tear it down." So Saul of Tarsus thought. The Son of 
God just spoke to him, "Saul! Saul! why persecutest thou me?" 
" Who art thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." 
" Lord, what wilt thou have me do?" One glance, and he became a 
new man. He held a high position in Jerusalem. O sinner, may 
you hear that tender, loving voice of the Savior; and may you this 
day and this hour think well of the Son of God. If yon will pardon 
me, and I say it with reverence, we might summon the angels of 
heaven here. Only once they were permitted to burst through the 
clouds and come down to this world. Yes, they were there, long be- 
fore the morning stars sang together; there when Christ was in glo- 
ry. They saw him when he left the throne of God and came down 
into a manger; they saw him pass by thrones on earth, and come 
down into a manger. Hear them upon the plains of Bethlehem: 
"Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be unto 
all people, for unto us is born this day, in the city of David, a Sa- 
vior." The angels of heaven thought that he was a Savior; and so 
he is, the Savior of the world. If we could ask the angels what they 
think of God's Son, what a shout would go up from around the 
throne. John heard the voice of many angels ten thousand times 
ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and they were singing, 
" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." 

I would to God that I had the voice of an angel, that I might win 
your soul to the Son of God. A man was preaching in Brooklyn to- 
day about the white robes; and a friend said the halls of that build- 
ing never heard such preaching before. And the minister said they 
might be wearing those robes a good deal sooner that they thought. 
And just as he got through, he threw up both his hands and said "Jesus" 
— and fell dead. Would that I could stand aside and let him take 
my place for five minutes. Oh, won't you think well of Jesus? Won't 
you think well of Jesus of the New Testament? Won't you think 
well of God's own Son? I want to bring one more witness. "May 
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and this right hand 
forget its cunning if I cease" to give praises unto his name. There 
is one more witness, which is that beloved One. When Jesus of 
Nazareth was coining up out of the Jordan, lo! a voice from the 
Throne — a voice from heaven — Hark! sinners, listen! God speaks: 
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." That is 
what God thought of him. Once he took Peter, James, and John 
where Moses and Elias were, and he spoke: "This is my beloved 



FAITH. 219 

Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." Won't you think 
something of the Son of God? Young lady, what do you think? 
Mother, what do you think? Do you think enough of him to trust 
him ? If you want to please the father here on earth, you will think 
well of his son; and if you want to please the Heavenly Father you 
will think well of his Son. 

Now, before I close, let me ask you one question — take it home 
with you— and that is this: "Why don't you love him?" Just think 
now, can you give a reason for not loving him? I knew an infidel 
who was asked by a little child why he didn't love Jesus, and he 
finally said to himslf, I will just find out why I don't love Jesus. He 
took the Bible and opened it to the book of John — if you want to 
find out why you don't love Jesus, don't you look there. He found 
that God so loved the world that he gave Christ for it, and the poor 
infidel's heart was broken. And that night he was on his knees cry- 
ing for mercy. O sinner, do think well of Christ to-day ! Love 
him to-day! Give your souls to him this blessed evening, the last 
Sabbath of this blessed month! This day and this hour let us press 
into the kingdom of God. 



FAITH. 

"Faith is the substance of things boped for, and the evidence of things not seen." 
Hebrews 11 : 1. 

I want to call your attention to-night to the subject of Faith. I 
think I hear some of you say: "That is a very dull subject: if I had 
known that would be the subject, I would not have come." But it 
is a very important subject. It is faith that brings the blessing after 
all. Some one has said there are three things to faith — knowledge, 
assent, laying hold. Knowledge! A man may have a good deal of 
knowledge about Christ; but that does not save him. I suppose 
Noah's carpenters knew as much about the ark as Noah did, but they 
perished miserably nevertheless; because they were not in the ark. 
A good many men know a good deal about Christ, but they are not 
saved by it; and our knowledge about Christ does not help us if we do 
not act upon it. But knowledge is very important. Knowledge, assent, 
then laying hold ; and it is that last clause that saves, that brings the 
soul and Christ together. The best definition I can find of faith is, 



220 FAITH. 

the dependence upon the veracity of another. The Bible definition 
in the 11th chapter of Hebrews is: "Faith is the substance of things 
hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen." In other words, 
faith says Amen to everything that God says. Faith takes God 
without any if's. If God says it, faith says, I believe it; faith says 
Amen to it. 

But now the question is, who shall we have faith in? A man got 
up in one of our young men's meetings the other night, and wanted 
to know why it was there were so many that backslid. One reason 
for backsliding, is because men are not sound in their faith; it is be- 
cause they have not really been converted to God. A good many 
men are converted to a church; they say: "I like that church; it is 
a beautiful church, and there is beautiful singing; I like that quartet 
choir and the grand organ; and there is a good minister." And so 
they are converted to the church, and they are converted to the 
singing, and converted to the organ, and converted to the minister, 
or they are converted to the people who go there. They get into 
good society by going there. But that is not being born of God, or 
being converted to God. Once there was an old chap who sat down 
among some army soldiers who were telling stories of adventure, and 
one fellow got up and told all about how he had backslid; but the 
old soldier said: "I think there is some mistake; and the truth of 
the matter is, you have never yet slid forward." Now if a man has 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has got something he can anchor 
to, and the anchor will hold; and when the hour of temptation comes 
to him, and the hour of trial comes to him, the man will stand firm. 
If we are only converted to man, and our faith is in man, we will 
certainly be disappointed. How very often we hear a man say: 
"There is a member of the church who cheated me out of five dollars; 
and I am not going to have anything more to do with people who 
call themselves Christians." But if the man had had faith in Jesus 
Christ you do not suppose he would have had his faith shattered be- 
cause some one cheated him out of five dollars, do you? What we 
want is, some one to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to 
the prophecy of Jeremiah, 17th chapter, beginning with the 15th 
verse: "Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man thattrusteth in man 
and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. 
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the 
Lord is." But cursed is the man that puts his trust in man; that is 
the reason why so many people are all the time being disappointed, 
and why there are so many that have their faith shaken. It is be- 
cause they have been trusting in man, and man has failed them; and 
they have been trusting in themselves, and their hearts are deceitful 
and desperately wicked, and we cannot have trust in ourselves; and 
because man hath failed us, or because we have failed ourselves, we 



FAITH. 221 

think God will fail us. But if we put our trust in the God of Jacob, 
he will surely not fail us. 

Faith is very important. You talk about financial panic — if busi- 
ness men lost faith among themselves, and in each other, how quickly 
all business would go to the wall! It is the foundation of society; 
it is the foundation of everything. Some people think, when we 
talk about faith in Christ, that it must be some miraculous faith, and 
that they have got to wait until it comes down out of heaven; that 
it is some shock which is to come upon them. But this faith in Christ 
is the same kind of faith that men have in one another. If a man 
has faith in the God of Jacob, God will never disappoint him. I 
never yet have seen a man whose faith God has disappointed, in all 
my life. There are men who say it does not make any difference 
what a man believes if he is in earnest, if he is sincere in his belief. 
We often hear people ask: "You do not think it makes any differ- 
ence what kind of a belief a man has, if he is only sincere in it, do 
you?" But, oh, my friends, I tell you it makes all the difference in 
the world whether a man believes a truth or a lie. If the devil can 
make you believe a lie, and that you are going to be saved because 
you are sincere in your belief in it, that is all he wants. Do not sup- 
pose for a moment that it does not make any difference what you be- 
lieve in, or what your faith is, so you are only sincere. Do not go 
over to that terrible illusion, which is one of the devil's lies. Once 
there were a couple of men arranging a balloon ascension. They 
thought they had two ropes fastened to the car, but one of them 
only was fastened; and they unfastened that one rope, and the balloon 
started to go up. One of the men seized hold of the car, and the 
other seized hold of the rope. Up went the balloon; and the man 
who seized hold of the car went up with it and was lost. The man 
who laid liold of the rope was just as sincere as the man who laid 
hold of the car. There was just as much reason to say that the man 
who laid hold of that would be saved, because he was sincere as the 
man who believed in a lie, because he is sincere in the belief. I like 
a man to be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him. Once 
I asked a man what he believed, and he said he believed what his 
church believed. I asked him what his church believed, and he said 
he supposed his church believed what he did; and that was all I 
could get out of him. And so men believe what other people be- 
lieve, and what their church believes, without really knowing what 
the church and other people do believe. 

Now, we must know distinctly in whom we believe. Jesus Christ 
tells us to have faith in God; and if we have faith in God, that it 
will carry us through all darkness, and storm, and affliction, and 
troubles, and trials. If our faith is in churches, and dogmas, and 
creeds, and men, and in this thing and that, we will come into 
trouble and difficulties before we get through our pilgrim's journey. 



222 FAITH. 

But for him who has faith in God, the light will shine brighter and 
brighter, until he comes at last into the glory of the perfect day. 
Some people put their faith in a man. Some say: "There is such a 
minister; I have confidence in him, and in his Christianity." They 
pin their faith to a good man, and sometimes the good man deviates 
a little; and this friend who imitates him thinks that he need not 
be as perfect as the elder. He says: "If he can do it, I can do it;" 
and he deviates a little more, and a little more, until he is, at last, very 
far away from the moorings. If a teacher teaches a child writing, he 
teaches him to imitate the copy as closely as he possibly can. Abra- 
ham, andlsaac, and Jacob, and those heroic men that lived and moved 
as the heroes of olden times — there is a long line of them named in the 
11th chapter of Hebrews; but in the next chapter the writer takes the 
eye away from the contemplation of them, and says: "Look at Jesus." 
You need not look at Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, but look unto 
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Look to him alone. 
Let us learn a lesson, that we are not to pin our faith to good men; 
we are not to have supreme faith in them. They cannot save us. 
We are to have confidence in them; but when it comes to the great 
question of salvation, we are to have faith in God, and God alone. 
You are not even to obey good men. We are to obey God, and him 
only. If God tells us to do a thing, we are to do it. If he tells us 
to believe a thing, we are to believe it; we are to have faith in God. 
Have faith in God; and if God tells you to believe a thing, believe it; 
and then you will have peace and confidence and joy. Now, we are 
to have faith. Christ says, "Have faith in God." 

But I hear a great many people saying: " How am I going to get 
this faith? I would come to Christ; but I don't know how to get 
faith." It would take months and years to get that. Now, I was a 
long time getting faith. I was anxious to work for the Lord, but I 
wanted faith. I wanted to get faith; but I went about it the wrong 
way. I prayed for it, and did nothing else. That ain't the way to 
get faith; to pray for it, and neglect the Word of God. The way to 
get faith is to know who God is; and I never knew a man or woman 
that was well acquainted with God that wanted faith. Some one 
said to a Scotch woman, " You are a woman of great faith." " No," 
she says, " I am a woman of little faith; but I have got a great God." 
Now, would you just turn a moment to the 20th chapter of the Gos- 
pel of John, and the 31st verse: " But these are written that ye might 
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing 
ye might have life through his name." Now the whole gospel of 
John was written for one purpose. John took up his pen and he wrote 
that gospel, that we might believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of 
God, and that by believing we might have eternal life. And so, in-, 
stead of praying for faith, and mourning because we haven't got 
faith, let us study the Word of God, and get acquainted with the 



FAITH. 223 

God of Israel; and then we will have faith in him. You can't find 
a man or woman that is acquainted with God, but that has strong- 
faith in God. That is the reason these infidels won't trust him, be- 
cause they don't know him. Now, would you turn to the 10th 
chapter of Romans, and the 17th verse: "So then faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." — " Faith cometh by hear- 
ing, and hearing by the Word of God!" Now, sinner, do you want 
to be saved to-night? Have faith in God! Take him at his 
word! Believe what he says! Believe the record God has given in 
his Son? I can imagine some of you saying: "I want to; but I 
have not got the right kind of faith." What kind of faith do you 
want? Now, the idea that you want a different kind of faith is all 
wrong. Use the faith you have got. Just believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Not only that, you can't give any reason for not believing. 
If a man told me he couldn't believe me, I should have a right to 
ask him why he couldn't believe me. I should have a right to ask 
him if I had ever broken my word with him; and if I had not broken 
my word with him, he ought to believe me. I would like to ask you„ 
Has God ever broke his word? Can you come forward and tell me 
our God has ever failed to keep his word? Never. My friends, he 
will keep his word. 

I tell you, dear friend, it is the damning sin of the world to refuse 
to come through that one door; and there is a blight over the whole 
world just because man don't believe. It is all unbelief that has 
brought misfortune among us. It is the sin of the world. We have 
sinned, — not because we have murdered, not because we have sworn, 
not because we have lied: God condemns the world because they 
believe not on him ; that is the root of all evil. A man who be- 
lieves in the Lord Jesus Christ won't murder and lie, and do all 
these awful things. Don't g;et caught on that terrible delusion that 
unbelief is a misfortune. Unbelief is not a misfortune, but is th© 
sin of the world. Christ found it on all sides of the world. When 
he first got up from the grave, he found that his disciples doubted- 
He had reason to cry out against unbelief. There was Thomas 
doubted, in fact, all the rest of the disciples; and it is what is keep- 
ing back God's blessing in the city of New York. I believe we 
would have a great revival here, and thousands of persons would be 
converted, if we only had faith in God. Now God is able to do great 
things, if we only believe in him. Let us have faith. Don't be 
looking to see if you have got the right kind of faith. Look and see 
if you have got the right kind of Christ. Now faith is just the hand 
that reaches out and gets the blessing. Faith sees a thing in God's 
hand; Faith says, I will have it. I see that book in Mr. Dodge's 
hand; I go and take it; I have got faith that he will let me have the 
book. Now, my friends, have faith in God to-night. Faith is an 
outward look, not an inward look. A great many people are look- 



224 FAITH. 

ing at their feelings, a great many people are looking down here. 
Don't be looking at your feelings, but look at heaven; and if you 
have got the right kind of Christ, you will have the right kind of 
faith. Suppose a man had been in the habit of meeting a beggar 
on the street, and he might say: " I have met this man for years out 
here begging, and as I go up to-night I meet him; he has got a nice 
suit of clothes on, and I say to him, ' Hullo, beggar!' and he says, 
' Don't you call me a beggar; I am no beggar.' ' Why, are you not 
a beggar?' 'No sir, I am not a beggar.' 'What is the reason you 
are not a beggar?' 'Why, 1 was sitting there to-day, and I put out 
my hand and asked a man to give me something, and Mr. Dodge 
came along and he put $5,000 right into my hand.' ' How do you 
know it is good money?' 'I took it to the bank.' 'How did you 
get it?' ' I put my hand out, aud he just put it in my hand.' ' How 
do you know it is the right kind of a hand?' ' Oh, pooh! what do I 
care what kind of a hand it was!' " 

And so we have only to reach out the hand of faith to-night and 
take God's Son. The gift of God is his Son, and this Son is eternal 
life. Do you want it? Take it. Who will have faith in him to-night? 
You must have a poor opinion of God if you won't trust him, 1 can 
imagine some people saying: "Oh, we have a great respect for God; 
but we have not got faith in him." How if your children should say: 
"Oh, we love papa so much; but we don't have faith in him"? You 
smile at that; and yet how many Christians talk in that way? Oh, 
this miserable, wretched unbelief ! What grounds have we got for not 
believing God! Let us ask God to-night to take us from it. Let 
us put our whole confidence in God; and let us trust him now. If 
we don't believe him, John says we make him a liar; and that is what 
unbelief is. Many a man has been knocked down in the streets of 
New York for calling another a liar. Men take it as a great insult. 
It isn't very often that it is such a great insult. We very often tell 
that which is not true. When a man tells God he lies, is it true? 
The devil said God was a liar, and men rather believe him than be- 
lieve God. God is truth. Let us trust him with all our hearts. 
Now, there is a verse here I would like to call your attention to — a 
brother spoke of it in the inquiry meeting to the inquirers — the 3d 
chapter of John and the 33d verse: "He that hath received his testi- 
mony hath set to his seal that God is true." "He that hath received 
his testimony — 'his,' that is, God's testimony — hath set to his seal 
that God is true." In the old days men used to wear a ring, a sig- 
net ring, and instead of signing their names to a document they used 
to take that ring and sign that document; and so Christ uses that as 
an illustration. Now Christ says if you will set to your seal that 
God is true, he will believe it. You then set to your seal that God 
is true. Now, oh lay hold of that verse to-night — "He that hath re- 
ceived his testimonv hath set to his seal that God is true." Who 



FAITH. 225 

will indorse him? Who will believe? Faith says, I will. I will set 
to my seal that God is true. Isn't there some one here that will set 
to his seal that God is true? There will be joy in heaven to-night. 
Isn't there some one that will do it? 

My little Willie I once told to jump off a high table and I would 
catch him. But he looked down and said, "Papa, I'se afraid." I 
again told him I'd catch him, and he looked down and said, "Papa, 
I'se afraid." You smile; but that's just the way with the unbeliever. 
He looks down and dare not trust the Lord. You say that would be 
blind faith; but I say it wouldn't. I told Willie to look at me and 
then jump; and he did it and was delighted. He wanted to jump 
again, and finally his faith became so great that he would have 
jumped when I was eight or ten feet away and said, "Papa, I'se 
comin'." I remember seeing a man in Mobile putting little boys on 
the fence posts, and they jumped into his arms with perfect con- 
fidence. But there was one large boy, nine or ten years old, who 
would not jump. I asked the man why it was, and he said the boy 
wasn't his. Ah, that's it! The boy wasn't his. He hadn't learned 
to trust him. But the other boys knew him and could trust him. 
Oh, sinner, will you not learn Christ to-night, and jump into the 
arms of a loving Savior? He'll keep you. Who will believe in the 
Lord Jesus Christ to-night? Who will come to him and be saved? 

Will you not take God at his word? Oh, may he give you 
strength and faith to-night to trust him, as Job did! 



m 



CONFESSING CHRIST. 

"For with the heart man helieveth unto righteousness;- and with the mouth confession 
is made unto salvation." Romans 10: 10. 

Last night I spoke to you about believing. I want to follow that 
subject to-night with another subject as important, and that is Con- 
fession of Christ; not confessing sin, that is not what I want to talk 
about to-night, but confessing Christ. In the 10th chapter of 
Romans, 10th verse — a very little verse — you will find these words: 
"For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation." I believe there are a 
great many people who have got into trouble and difficulty right in 
the middle of that verse, because they do not understand why it is 
that they do not have the joy they have heard other Christian peo- 
ple talk about. They say they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ; 
they say they trust him, and him alone, for salvation; they say that 
Christ is their only hope; but there they stop. Now, I say to you 
that confession is as important as faith. "With the heart man be- 
lieveth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made 
unto salvation." Then the next verse says: "For the Scripture say- 
eth, Whosover believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Now, if a 
man really believes in his heart, the next thing he ought to do is to 
confess Christ; is it not? And you won't get the blessing until you 
do. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The fact 
of the matter is, that we are all moral cowards; we are ashamed to 
come out and confess Christ, and take our stand on the Lord's side, 
and on the side of his religion. It is the only religion in the world 
that is worth having; it is the only religion in the world that gives 
life to man; but, strange to say, I believe we are the only people on 
earth who are ashamed of their religion. You cannot find a man 
who holds any false doctrine of religion who is not proud of it. If a 
man has got hold of an error, he is not ashamed to confess it and 
acknowledge it to all men. A man who is in the service of Satan is 
not ashamed of it. You hear such men swearing on the street, pro- 
claiming who is their master every day; they seem to be proud of 
the devil, and to like to have every one know that they are servants 
of his. 

But how do men confess their allegiance to Christ? As disciples 

of Jesus, what cowards we are! It sometimes happens that those 

who have gone away from our meetings under the influence of a 

changed heart, come to me afterward and say that they are still in 

226 



CONFESSING CHRIST. 227 

darkness. I say to them, there is a reason for this; did you con- 
fess Christ when you went home? "No; I thought I would wait 
and see how it would hold out, before I told any one." But that is 
not the right way to do. You see it is with the heart man believeth, 
and the next step is to confess him with the mouth; that is what the 
mouth is for — to confess Christ; to tell all that he has done for you. 
If a man is ashamed to do this, to take his stand on the Lord's side, 
he will not get the benefit of his conviction. In fact, it is confession 
unto salvation; salvation comes when we take our stand for Jesus 
Christ, before all the world. If I belonged to the Republican party, 
and got tired and sick of it and wanted to join the Democratic party, 
I should not be ashamed to come out and acknowledge it. You 
never saw a man leave one party to join another who did not like to 
come out and let every one know it. They want to use all the in- 
fluence they can to get their friends to join them. If a man is on 
the wrong side of this question of religion, and goes over on the 
Lord's side, ought he not to be just as willing to publish it, and to make 
every one know that he is on the Lord's side? Isn't it amazing how 
few there are who are ready to come out boldly and acknowledge to 
every one that they want to be on the Lord's side? 

One thing that made our one o'clock meeting so interesting to-day 
was, a young man got up and said: "My sister and my mother are 
very anxious to have me become a Christian, and I myself want to." 
I said: "Thank God for that; that man has more courage. He is 
willing to let the world know that he wants to be on the Lord's side." 
I never yet have seen a man who came out boldly in that way but 
that he surely turns out all right at last. Look at the 9th chapter of 
Luke, the 23d verse: "And he said unto them all, if any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and 
follow me." But the cross is what men do not like; they want to 
get to heaven without taking up the cross — any way but that. If 
men coud buy salvation, they would be willing to pay a good price 
for it. They would go round the world to get to heaven without the 
burden of the cross. The way to heaven is straight as an arrow; it 
is perfectly straight. A man need not be in darkness about the way, 
if he really wants to know. But on the way to heaven there is a 
cross; and if you try to go around it, or to step over it, or to do any- 
thing else than take it up and bear it onward, you get lost. When 
men are ready to follow Christ, to deny themselves; and humble 
themselves, and take up the cross, then salvation is ready for them. 
Satan puts a straw across our path and magnifies it, and makes us 
believe it is a mountain; but all the devil's mountains are mountains 
of smoke; when you come up to them they are not there, but mere 
mountains of smoke. Now, there is nothing to hinder this whole 
audience from coming out on the Lord's side to-night, and confess- 
ing Jesus Christ to be their Savior; There is nothing but your will 



228 CONFESSING CHRIST. 

to prevent it. Satan has not the power to keep you from it, if you 
will. Christ says, "Except a man become converted, and like a 
little child, he is not fit for the kingdom of God." Pride, I think, is 
the worst enemy we have. It keeps thousands of p ople out of the 
kingdom of God. The idea that we have to humble ourselves and 
become like a little child is too much for our pride; but " whoever shall 
save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose his life for my sake 
shall find it;" but "whoever shall be ashamed of me and of my word, 
of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his 
own glory and in his power, and amid all the angels." Ashamed of 
him! A young convert got up in one of our meetings and tried to 
preach; he could not preach very well either, but he did the best he 
could. But some one stood up and said: "Young man, you can not 
preach; you ought to be ashamed of yourself." Said the young man: 
" So I am ; but 1 am not ashamed of my Lord." That is right. Do 
not be ashamed of Christ — of the Man that bought us with his own 
blood. Ought we to be ashamed to speak for his cause, to take our 
stand on his side? He might well be ashamed of us, for ten thousand 
reasons which I could show. But the idea of a poor, miserable, vile, 
blind, hell-deserving sinner being ashamed to own Christ! It is the 
strangest thing in the world. Look in the 12th chapter of Luke, the 
8th and 9th verses: "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess 
me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the 
angels of God. But he that denieth me before men shall be denied 
before the angels of God." 

During our war, when a general had accomplished some great vic- 
tory, or had any great success, he thought it was a great honor to 
have a man stand up in congress and mention his name. But think 
of having your name mentioned in the courts of heaven; and not 
only that,i>ut by the Prince of heaven, by the King of kings and 
Lord of lords! Think of Jesus speaking our names there! He 
says to us, If you will not be ashamed of me here before men, in this 
old creation, I will not be ashamed of you in heaven before the angels, 
in the new creation. You confess me here, I will confess you there. 
You deny me here, I will deny you there. 

Will the Christian people in this room, in this assembly, to-night, 
take their stand and let every one know in the circle of their family 
and among their acquaintances that they are on the Lord's side? 
Why, if you do, it would be the best meeting, a meeting of more 
satisfaction than any we have had. The results of such a course, 
taken by every one here to-night, would bring more to Jesus, and be 
productive of greater righteousness, than any brought out by any 
previous assembly. Let you, young converts, tell your experience, 
take your stand and confess Christ. That is the way to show how 
strong your conversion is. Be sure you are on the Lord's side. 
" If the Lord be God, then follow him; but if Baal be God, then fol- 



CONFESSING CHSIST. 229 

low him." It is one of the surest signs of your genuine repentance 
to come out before men and confess the Lord Jesus Christ. Take 
your stand, and be a witness to the Lord. " He that confesseth me 
before men, the same will I also confess befere the angels of heaven. 
But he that denieth me before men, the same will I also deny before 
my father which is in heaven." I was in a Boston prayer-meet'ng, 
a number of years ago — but I ought to say that I have lived for a 
number of years out West, a number of years in Chicago, and you 
know that that part of the country is made up principally of young 
men; at any rate the prayer-meetings were for the most part made 
up of young men — hardly saw a gray-headed man in them at all. 
So, while I was in Boston, it was quite a treat to see old, gray-headed 
m,en in the assemblies. Well, in that meeting, a little tow-headed 
Norwegian boy stood up. He could hardly speak a word of English, 
plain ; but he got up and came to the front. He trembled all over, 
and the tears were all trickling down his cheeks; but he spoke out 
as well as he could, and said: "If I tell the world about Jesus, then 
will he tell the Father about me." He then took his seat; and that 
was all he said; but I tell you in those few words he said more than 
all of them, old and young together. Those few words went straight 
down into the heart of every one present. " If I tell the world" — 
yes, that's what it means, to confess Christ. 

And now are there not hundreds here to-night that are really 
ashamed of Christ — feel backward about confessing that they are 
Christians? I heard a story about two young men who came to this 
city from the country on a visit. They went to the same boarding- 
house to stay, and took a room together. Well, when they came to 
go to bed, each felt ashamed to go down on his knees before his com- 
panion first. So there they sat watching each other. In fact, to 
express the situation in one word, they were both cowards — yes, cow- 
ards! But at last one of them mustered up a little courage; but 
with burning blushes, as if he was about to do something wrong and 
wicked, he sank down on his knees to say his prayers. As soon as 
the second saw that, he also knelt. And then, after they had said 
their prayers, each waited for the other to get up. When they did 
manage to get up, one said to the other: " I really am glad to see 
that you knelt; I was afraid of you." "Well," said the other, "and 
I was afraid of you." So it turned out that both were Christians, 
and yet they were afraid of each other. You smile at that, but how 
many times have you done the same thing — perhaps not in this way, 
but the same thing in effect. Henceforth, then, be not ashamed, but 
let every one know you are his. And I wish to say to the young 
converts here, to-night, that if you want peace and joy flowing into 
your hearts like a river, commence at once and confess him. It is 
not a work of merit; you are not making God a debtor to you; it is 
the very least you can do. And those who do so, come out boldly 



230 CONFESSING CHRIST. 

and confess him, preach better and stronger than any minister of his. 
Each confession is worth more than a sermon; it is like to one raised 
from the dead. 

The most powerful meeting we have ever had was that of last 
night, the converts came boldly forth and told how they had been 
saved. I heard many say that it was the best meeting they had at- 
tended. Oh, what meetings of sweetness and communion with God 
we would have if every one would just come out and do his duty, as 
God wants him to do! If we boldly took up our cross, and bore it 
manfully, the world would soon see the influence of these meetings. 
When I was in Ireland, I heard of a man who got great blessing 
from God. He was a business man — a landed proprietor. He had 
a large family, and a great many men to work for him, taking care of 
his home. He came up to Dublin, and there he found Christ. And 
he came boldly out, and thought he would go home and confess 
him. He thought that if Christ had redeemed him with his precious 
blood, the least he could do would be to confess him, and tell about 
it sometimes. So he called his family together, and his servants, and 
with tears running down his cheeks, he poured out his soul to them, 
and told them what Christ had done for him. He took the Bible 
down from its resting-place and read a few verses of gospel. Then 
he went down on his knees to pray, and so greatly was the little 
gathering blessed, that four or five out of that family were convicted 
of sin; they forsook the ways of the world, and accepted Christ and 
eternal life. It was like unto the household of Cornelius, which ex- 
perienced the like working of the Holy Spirit. And that man and 
his family were not afraid to follow out their professions. 

They were not like a great many men I have seen who accept Christ 
while there is no cross to bear, and where everything is plain and 
easy for them. Some men, when they profess to accept Christ, im- 
mediately think they must go and join some church right away. So 
they go down and see the minister, and say: " Mr. So-and-so, I have 
become a Christian^ and I want to take a pew in your church. I 
would like to be a member of your congregation, but I don't want 
to take any active part in the church. Now, don't ask me, some 
evening, to get up and tell my experience; I never did anything like 
that, and would not like to be pointed at so conspicuously." Well, 
he does join the church; and that is the last you ever hear of him. 
Last week, in this building, a man was converted, and he went right 
off and joined some church. Well, I hope after he did join, he didn't 
stop going to church. If a man is converted, I want him to come 
here and give his experience — let the thousands hear that he is a 
child of God; let his testimony be given to others, and the result 
may be that God will use his witnessing to the conversion of many. 
Mr. Sankey sang to-night, "Where are the Nine?" So may Christ 
ask the question, "Where are the Nine?" You have read of the 



CONFESSING CHRIST. 231 

story of the cleansing of the ten lepers; you know how the God of 
glory had compassion upon them. His command was, " Go show 
yourselves to the priests;" and so they went — behold, the leprosy 
was all gone! It must have been a wonderful sight. They are go- 
ing along the road; all at once one discovers the great change that 
has been wrought in him, and he stops suddenly. " Brothers, my 
leprosy is gone," he cries; "I am perfectly well, look!" And an- 
other then sees his altered condition, and he cries out, "And I am 
well, too." And another, "Why, see! my fingers were nearly rotted 
off; and now the disease is all gone." So they all look at them- 
selves; and the great truth bursts upon them that they have been 
made well. Nine of them continue on their journey; but one poor 
man turns back, and falls at the feet of Jesus, and glorifies God. 
Perhaps he did not find his Lord right away; perhaps he had to 
search for him; but find him he did, and gave him the glory. Christ, 
after seeing him alone at his feet, out of all he had conferred the 
great boon upon, asked, in astonishment: "Were there not ten 
cleansed; but where are the nine?" Well, I don't know what be- 
came of them. Perhaps they went and joined some church; at any 
rate, that is the last we hear of them. So the people think that if 
they join some church that is all that is required of them. Ha! my 
friends, "Where are the nine?" If the Lord has cleansed you, why 
don't you lift up your voice in his praise, and give thanks? Why 
do you bury your talents? Why don't you confess Christ? It is 
sweet to Christ to have men confess him. One day he said, "Whom 
do men say that I am?" He wanted them to confess him. But one 
said, " They say thou art Elias," and another, " That thou art Jere- 
miah;" and another — "Thou art John the Baptist." But he asked, 
" Whom do you say that I am?" — turning to his disciples. And Pe- 
ter answers, " Thou art the Son of the living God." Then our Lord 
exclaimed, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona." Yes; he blessed 
him right there, because he confessed him to be the Son of God. 
He was hungry to get some one to confess him. Then let every one 
take his stand on the side of the Lord; confess him here on earth, 
and he will confess you when you get to heaven. He will look 
around upon you with pride, because you stood up for him here. If 
you want the blessing of heaven and the peace that passeth all un- 
derstanding, you must be ready and willing to confess him. Do you 
know how Peter fell? He fell like ten thousand people fall, because 
they don't confess the Son of God; that is the way Peter fell. He 
saw the people standing all around, and he was ashamed to own his 
Lord and Master. Am I speaking to any one here to-night who is 
ashamed to own Christ in his business; ashamed to own him among 
his circle of acquaintances? Have yoa been out to some dinner 
party, the last week, and heard these meetings ridiculed, and heard 
them scoff and jeer at Christ? If you did, and did not confess him 



232 CONFESSING CHRIST. 

and own him then, how can you expect to be acknowledged before 
the throne, at the judgment day? If you are not willing to take 
your stand on the side of the Lord, you need not expect that he will 
bless you. I can imagine some one saying: "I don't believe in 
talking much about myself; and I don't." Well, I don't want you 
to confess yourselves; I want you to confess Christ. We have had 
enough of that first kind of work. Confess him; that's what I want 
you to do. 

Look into that 5th chapter of Mark. It is that man I spoke of the 
other night, how Christ cast out the legions of devils out of him; 
and how he prayed him he might be with him. "No," he said; "you 
go home, and tell your friends how the Lord had compassion on you." 
The young converts say: "Well, I will go around to the synagogue 
every Sunday; but I can't tell any one; I won't say anything about 
it." But this man began to publish it; and it says that all men did 
marvel. They wouldn't have it that the Son of God did it. The 
man had never been to college; I don't know as he could write his 
name; I don't know as he had ever been to school. There was one 
thing he did know — he knew the Son of God had healed him, and 
had put a new song into his mouth. Christ says: "Go home, and tell 
your friends what great things the Lord has done." Thus he had the 
highest eloquence; he had the eloquence of heaven. The Spirit of 
the Lord God was upon him. Yes, but some of these women say; 
"If I was only a man, I wonld confess." Look into the 4th chapter 
of John. There was a woman that stirred up the whole town. She 
took one draught of the living v> T ater, and when she went to publish 
it she says: "Come, and see the man that told me everything I ever 
did; is not this Christ?" And then it says that many believed her 
testimony, and then they got Christ into town, and he stayed there two 
or three days; and many more believed on account of his own works. 
I wish we had a few more women like the woman of Samaria, willing 
to confess what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for our souls. 

Now, there is one man in the 9th chapter of John I want to call 
your attention to, I do not know his name. I wish I did; because 
he is one of the men I want to see when I get to heaven. I would 
like to read the whole chapter, but it is so long. I will just read a 
few verses — in the 9th verse, or 8th verse. It is that blind man that 
Christ gave sight to. Here is a whole chapter in John, of forty-one 
verses, just to tell how the Lord blessed that blind beggar. It was 
put in this book, I think, just to bring out the confession of that 
man. "The neighbors, therefore, and they which before had seen 
him which was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Some 
said, This is he; others said, He is like him; but he said, I am he." 
If it had been our case I think we would have kept still. We would 
have said: "There is a storm brewing among the Pharisees; and they 
have said, If any man acknowledges Christ, we will put him out of 



CONFESSING CHRIST. 233 

the synagogue. Now, I don't want to be put out of the synagogue." 
I am afraid we would have said that; that is the way with a good 
many of the young converts. What did the young convert here? 
He said, "I am he." And, bear in mind, he only told what he knew; 
he knew the man had given him his eyes. "Some said, He is like 
him, but he said, I am he." So, young converts, open your lips, and 
tell what Christ has done for you. If you can't do more than that, 
open your lips and do that. "Therefore said they unto him, How 
were thine eyes opened? He answered and said, A man that is 
called Jesus made clay and anointed mine ayes, and said unto me, 
Go to the pool of Siloam and wash; and I went and washed, and I 
received sight." He said, "He anointed my eyes with clay and I 
went to the pool and washed; and whereas I had no eyes, I have 
now got two good eyes." Some skeptic might ask, "What is the 
philosophy of it?" but he couldn't tell that. "Then said they unto 
him, Where is he? He said, I know not. They brought to the 
Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the Sabbath 
day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then again the 
Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said 
unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed and do see." 
He wasn't afraid to tell his experience twice; he had just told it 
once. "Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of 
God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, How 
can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a divis- 
ion among them." Now I am afraid if it had-been us we would have 
kept still and said, "There is a storm brewing." "They say unto the 
blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine 
eyes? He said, He is a prophet." 

Now, you see, he has got to talking of the Master, and that is a 
grand good thing. I pity a man or woman that has got an idea that 
the world can't got along without him. This man, he began to talk 
of his Master. "He is a prophet;" that is what I think about him. 
He knew what he was coming to; because the Pharisees had just 
said if any man confessed him, he was going to be cast out of the syna- 
gogue. It wasn't like our churches nowadays; for if one church 
casts a man out, another will take him in if he shows any signs of 
repentance; but if he was cast out of the synagogue, there were 
none others there to take him in. " But the Jews aid not believe 
concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until 
they called the parents of him that had received his sight. And 
they asked them, saying: "Is this your son, who ye say was born 
blind? How, then, doth he now see?" His parents answered them 
and said: "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind. 
Bntby what means he nowseeth we know not; or who hath opened 
his eyes we know not. He is of age; ask him; he will speak for 
himself." I do not like those parents* They did know. They just 



234 CONFESSING CHRIST. 

dodged the question; they were ashamed to confess. What a bless- 
ing they would have got if they had only confessed! "He is of age; 
ask him." They had rather sit in the synagogue than have Christ. 
"Then again called they the man that was blind and said unto him, 
"Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner." He 
answered and said, " Whether he be a sinner or no I know not. 
One thing I know, that whereas I was blind now I see." They 
couldn't beat that out of him; this young convert got assurance right 
away. " I know that, whereas I was blind, now I see." I had a 
good deal rather know that one thing than have all the wisdom of 
the world, and not have that. "Then said they unto him again, 
what did he do unto thee? How opened he thine eyes? He 
answered them, I have told you already and ye did not hear; where- 
fore would ye hear it again? Will ye also be his disciples?" He 
didn't even know Christ; but he is ready to preach for him. Poor 
beggar! Unlearned man! If you are willing to be his disciple, I 
will tell it to you again. Will you do it? I like the faith that young 
convert had. You do not know what you can do by kindness and 
forbearance. I remember a family in Chicago who used to hoot at 
me and my scholars as Ave passed their house sometimes. One day 
one of the boys came into the Sunday-school and made light of it. 
As he went away, I told him I was glad to see him there, and hoped 
he would come again. He came and still made a noise, but I urged 
him to come the next time; and finally one day he said, "I wish you 
would pray for me, boys." That boy came to Christ. He went 
home and confessed his faith, and it wasn't long before that whole 
family had found the way into the kingdom of God. Oh, let us 
confess him to-night, and not be ashamed of our religion! 



COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 

"And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion to 
wards them, and he healed their sick." Matthew 14 : 14. 

I want to call your attention this evening to just one word — Com- 
passion. Some time ago I took up the Concordance, and ran through 
the life of Christ to see what it was that moved him to compassion; 
for we read often in his life, while he was down here, that he was 
moved with compassion. I was deeply pleased, in my own soul, as I 
ran through his life, and found those passages of Scripture that tell 
us what moved him with compassion. In the 14th chapter of Mat- 
thew and 14th verse, we find these words: "And Jesus went forth 
and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion towards 
them, and he healed their sick." He saw the great multitude, and 
he was moved with compassion, and he healed their sick. And in 
another place it says that he healed all that had need of it. There 
didn't any one need to tell him what was in the hearts of the people. 
When I stand before an audience like this I cannot read your histo- 
ry; but he knew the history of each one. It says in one place in 
Scripture, "Each heart knows its own bitterness;" and when Christ 
stood before a multitude like this, he knew the particular bitterness 
in each heart. He could read every man's biography; He knew the 
whole story. And as he stood before that vast multitude, the heart 
of the Son of God was moved with compassion; just as in the pre- 
ceding verses we find him, when John's disciples had come to him 
with their sad story, and with broken hearts. Their beloved Master 
had just been beheaded by the wicked king; they had just buried 
the headless body, and came to Jesus to tell all their sorrow to him. 
It was the best thing they could do. No one could sympathize with 
them as Jesus could; no one had the same compassion with them 
that Jesus had. In all our troubles, the best thing we can do is to 
follow in the footsteps of John's disciples, and tell it all to him. He 
is a high-priest that can be touched with our infirmities. We find 
after this, in a little while, that he, too, had to follow in the footsteps 
of the disciples. He had to lay down his life for that nation; but he 
forgot all about that as he looked upon the multitude, and his heart 
was moved with compassion. He sought to do them good; He 
sought to heal their sick. 

In Mark, 1st chapter and 41st verse, there is a story that brings 
out the compassion of Christ. There came to him a leper, and when 
235 



236 COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 

he saw him his heart was moved with compassion. The poor leper was 
full of leprosy from head to foot; he was rotten with leprosy. I can 
just imagine how the leper told his whole story to Christ; and it was 
the very best thing he could do. He had no friends to be interested for 
him; he might have had a wife and family, or a loved mother, but 
they could not be there to plead for him. The law forbid any one 
speaking to him or touching him; but undoubtedly some one had 
some day come out and lifted up his voice, and told him that a great 
prophet had arisen in Israel who could cure him of the leprosy ; that 
he was quite sure that he could do it, because he had performed 
miracles equal to that, and that he could give him life if he would 
only ask him. This leper told his sad story. Let us bring that scene 
down to our own day. Suppose that any one in this assembly here 
to-night should find that he was a leper, and the law required him to 
leave home. What a scene it must have been when that poor leper 
left his home, left the wife of his bosom, left his own offspring, with 
the thought that he never was to see them again! It was worse than 
death; he had to go into a living sepulchre — to vanish from home, 
wife, from mother, father, children, friends, and live outside the walls 
of the city. And while he was out there, if any man should come 
near him, he had to cry, "Unclean, unclean, unclean!" He had to 
wear a certain kind of garment, so that all men should know him. 
You can see him outside the walls of the city. It might happen in the 
course of years, that some one came out and shouted at the top of 
his voice, and told him that his little child was dying; but he could 
not go to see his dying child, or comfort his wife in her affliction. 
There in exile he had to remain, banished from home, while his body 
was rotting with that terrible disease, with no loved friends to care 
for him, nothing to do to occupy his time. That was the condition 
of the poor leper; and when he heard that Jesus could cure him, he 
went to him and said: "Lord, if thou wilt thou canst cure me; Lord, 
hear my pitiful story; Lord, have mercy upon me; Lord, save me." 
And Jesus was moved with compassion; and he reached out his hand 
and touched him. The law forbade him doing it, forbade any one 
touching him; but that great heart was moved, and he touched the man. 
And the moment he touched him the leprosy was gone; he was 
healed that very moment. He went home, and told his wife and 
family what a great blessing had come to him. 

Did you ever stop to think that the leprosy of sin is a thousand 
times worse than that Eastern leprosy? All that it could do was to 
destroy the body. It might eat out the eye; it might eat off the 
hand; it might eat off the foot — but think of the leprosy of sin! It 
brought angels from heaven, from the highest heights of glory down, 
not only into this world, but into the very pit of hell. Satan once 
lifted on high hallelujahs of heaven; but sin brought him out of 
heaven down into darkness. Look into the home of the drunkard; 



COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 23? 

look into the home of the libertine; look into the home of the harlot; 
look into the homes of those who are living in sin! The leprosy of 
sin is a thousand times worse than the Eastern leprosy of the body. 
But if the poor sinner, all polluted with sin, will come to Christ, and 
say as this leper did, that we have just read about, " Lord, thou 
canst have compassion on me: thou canst take away this desire for 
sin; if thou wilt, thou canst save me," he will save you to-night. 
O sinner, you had better come to him; he is the very best friend 
that you have. It is Jesus that we preach here to-night, the Son of 
God. He has come to help you; he stands in this assembly, now. 
We cannot see him with the bodily eye; but we can with the eye of 
faith; and he will save every sinner who will come to him to-night! 
My dear friends, will you not come to him and ask him to have mercy 
and compassion upon you? If I were an artist, I would like to 
paint that scene, and bring out vividly that poor, filthy leper coming 
to the Son of God; and the Son of God reaching out his hand and 
touching and cleansing him. 

And if I were an artist, I would like to draw another picture, and 
hang it up on yonder wall, that you might see it; and that is of the 
father that came to Christ with his beloved boy. He had been up 
on the mountain with Peter, James and John, and there he met Eli- 
jah the prophet, and Moses the law-giver. Heaven and earth had 
come together, and there he had met his Father, and he had spoken 
to him that memorable night on the mountain. In the morning 
when he came down, a crowd of people gathered round him, and 
some were laughing and talking; they had been trying to cast the 
evil spirit out of this boy, and told his pitiful story. No one knows 
but a "father how much that man loved that boy; his heart was wrap- 
ped up in that child; but the boy was not only deaf and dumb, but 
he was possessed with a devil, and sometimes this devil would 
throw him into the fire, and sometimes into the water. And when 
the father came to Jesus, he said to him, "Bring him unto me." 
And when he was coming, the devil cast him down to the ground. 
So every man on his way to Christ must first be cast down. There he 
lay foaming, wallowing, and Jesus only said, "How long has this 
been?" "From his birth," was the answer; " Oh, you do not know 
how much I have suffered with this boy! When a child he was griev- 
ously tormented; he has broken my heart." Some of you here 
perhaps have children who are suffering from some terrible disease, 
and who are breaking your hearts. You can sympathize with that 
father. How that father wept when he brought that poor boy! And 
when Jesus saw that pitiful scene, his heart was moved with com- 
passion, and with a word he cast out the devil. I can see the boy 
coming home with his father, leaping, and singing, and praying. 
Let us learn a lesson. Mother, father, have you got a son that the 
devil has taken possession of? Bring him to Jesus. He delights to 



238 COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 

save ; He delights to bless. All we have to do is to take him in the 
arms of our faith, and bring him to Jesus. I want to call your at- 
tention to a difference between the father we read of in the 9th chap- 
ter of Mark, and the poor leper in the 1st chapter. The leper says: 
" If thou wilt, thou canst make me whole." There was the " if" in 
the right place. The other said: "If thou canst, have compassion." 
He put the "if" in the wrong place. The Lord said: " If thou canst 
believe, all things are possible." Let us believe that the Son of God 
can save our sons and our daughters. Oh, have you got a poor 
drunken son? Have you a poor brother who is a slave to strong 
drink? Come; bring him to the meeting here to-morrow night, and 
let your cry be: "Lord, have compassion on my darling boy, and 
save him." 

About Jesus there was a great number of disciples as he was go- 
ing near the little city of Nain; and what met his eye? Why, there 
was a dead man carried out, and I cannot help but think of that pas- 
sage. When I was preaching to the men last Sunday night, a poor 
man fell dead; and while we were preaching he was carried out. 
And here there was a dead man being carried out of the city of Nain, 
and there was a great company of the friends accompanying that 
widow, to lay away her only child, her only son. He was an only son, 
it says; and his mother was a widow. The father, the head of the 
house, had died perhaps long before, and long before that mother 
had watched over that husband, and at last she closed his eyes in 
death. It was a terrible blow, and now death had come again. You 
who are mothers can see how through all that sickness that mother 
was not willing to let the neighbors come in and watch over that 
boy. For weeks, you can see a light burning in that little cottage 
in Nain. There is that mother; she is watching over that boy, her 
only son. How she loved him! You that are mothers can sympa- 
thize with her. You that are mothers can enter into full sympathy 
with her. You can see how hard it was to lose that only son. She 
will never look into that beautiful face again. She will never look 
into those beautiful eyes again. They have been closed; she has 
closed them with her own loving hands. She has imprinted the 
last kiss upon that lovely cheek. Now they lay him upon the coffin, 
or upon the bier, and perhaps four men take him up just as they did 
the man with the palsy, and they bear him away to his resting-place; 
and there is a great multitude coming out of Nain. All Nain is 
moved. The widow was loved very much, and there was a great 
multitude attending her. And now we see them as they are coming 
out of the gate of the city. The disciples look, and they see a great 
crowd coming out of Nain, and the two crowds, the two great multi- 
tudes, come together; and the Son of God looks upon that scene. 
We read often where he looked toward heaven and sighed. He had 
followers on his right hand, followers on his left hand, followers be- 



COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 239 

hind him, and followers before him. He saw the woe and suffering 
in this wretched world; he looked upon that weeping mother. Death 
had got its captive. And shall not the Son of God look upon that 
widow? He saw those tears trickling down her cheeks, and the 
great heart of the Son of God was moved. He wo aid not suffer that 
son to pass. He commanded the young men to rest the bier. 
" Young man, I say unto thee, arise!" and the dead heard the 
voice of the Son of God, and he arose. I can imagine him saying, 
" Blessed be God, I am alive." 

You know Christ never preached any funeral sermons. Here 
death had met its conquerer; and when he spoke the word, away went 
death. The Son of God was moved with compassion for that poor 
widow; and there isn't a poor widow in all New York but that Christ 
sympathizes with her. You that are widows mourning over loved 
ones, let me say to you Jesus is full of compassion. Let me say he 
is the same to-night that he was 1800 years ago, when he bound up 
that poor widow's heart in Nain. He will comfort you; and to-night, 
if you will just come to him and ask him to bind up your wounded 
heart, ask him to help you to bear this great affliction, the Son of 
God will do it. You will find that his arm is underneath you to 
help you carry the burden. There isn't a poor, suffering, crushed, 
bruised heart in all New York but that the Son of God is in sympa- 
thy with it; and he will have compassion on you, if you only come 
home to him, and he will bind up that heart of yours. Yes; Jesus 
was moved with compassion when he saw that poor widow. They 
did not need to tell him the story. He saw how the heart of the 
mother was broken; and so he just spoke the word. He didn't take 
him with him. He might have taken him along with him to glorify 
himself; but he gave him back to the mother. He took him right 
out of the arms of death, and handed him back to the mother. Yes, 
there was a happy home in Nain that night. How surprised the 
mother must have been; she could hardly believe her eyes. Oh, 
my friends, Jesus has got the same power to-night; and he will bind 
up your aching hearts, if you will only just come to him. 

Did you ever hear of one coming to Christ that he did not accept? 
He don't care what position in life you hold. No matter how low 
down you are; no matter what your disposition has been. You may 
be low in your thoughts, words and actions; you may be selfish; 
your heart may be overflowing with corruption and wickedness; yet 
Jesus will have compassion upon you. He will speak comforting- 
words to you, not treat you coldly or spurn you, as perhaps those of 
earth would, but will speak tender words, and words of love and 
affection and kindness. Just come at once. He is a faithful friend 
— a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He is a brother born 
for adversity. Treat him like a brother, and like a friend; and you 
will have a heavenly balm poured upon your wretched, broken heart. 



240 COMPASSION OF CHRIST. 

He is real; he is tangible. We don't worship a myth; we don't 
praise an unreal being. He is an everlasting, living person; a Man 
sitting at the right hand of God, full of the power and majesty of 
heaven. He comes here to-night in the Spirit. He is present with 
you. Oh, accept him! and he will deliver you, and save you, and bless 
you. My friends, just treat him as if you saw him here in person, as if 
he stood here in person, the same as I do now. Come to him, then, with 
all your troubles, and he will bless you. If he were here, and you saw 
him beckoning unto you, you would come, wouldn't you? Well, you 
would be saved then by sight; but he wants us to take him by faith. 
There are those here to-night that believe he is here now. Mr. Dodge, 
you came here for Christ's name, didn't you? [Mr. Dodge. — "Yes."] 
Isn't it Christ's name that has brought you here, Dr. Hep worth? [Dr. 
Hep worth. — " Yes."] And you, Dr. Booth, didn't you come here in 
Christ's name? [Dr. Booth. — "Yes."] Yes, you have come here 
for Christ, and are willing to confess his name. You are witnesses 
to his name Yes; here are two or three gather together in the name 
of Christ; and he is here because he has promised. Take him at his 
word, then, my friends. The Son of God is here to-night. Do you 
doubt it? Is there a man or woman in this assembly to-night that 
doubts it? I tell you he is here. He is just here as much as if you 
saw him. Press up to him. He is infinite in compassion, and will 
take pity upon you. 

Oh, my friends, that was earthly compassion; but what conception 
can you form of the compassion of Jesus? If you come and tell him 
your sad stories his heart will be moved. Oh, come and tell him your 
sins and misery. He knows what human nature is; he knows what 
poor, weak, frail mortals we are, and how prone we are to sin. He 
will have compassion upon you; he will reach out his tender hand 
and touch you, as he did the poor leper. You will know the touch 
of his loving hand. There is virtue and sympathy in it. That story 
of the soldier reminds me of another. A mother received a dispatch 
that her boy had been wounded. She resolved to go down to the 
front to see him; she knew that the nursing of the hospital would 
not be as tender as hers would be. After much solicitation she saw 
the doctor, and after repeated warnings from him not to touch the 
boy or wake him up — he had only a few days to live, at any rate, 
and waking him up would only hasten his death — she went to his 
bedside. When she saw the poor boy lying there so still and life- 
less, and with the marks of his suffering so fresh upon him, she 
could not resist the temptation to lay her hand on his brow. Instinct 
told him it was his mother's loving hand, and without opening his 
eyes, he said, "Oh, mother, have you come?" Let Jesus touch you 
to-night. His is a loving, tender hand, full of sympathy and com- 
passion. Oh, my brother (looking at a young man in one of the 
front rows), will von have him to-night? You will? Thank God, 



NO BOOM FOR JESUS. 241 

thank God! he says he will accept him. We have been praying two 
or three days for this young man; and now he says he will take 
Christ. Oh, bless the Lord! Let us pray; and as we pray, let us 
make room for Jesus in our hearts as this man has done, upon whom 
he has had compassion and whom he has saved. 



NO ROOM FOR JESUS. 

"And laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Lttke 2:7. 

You will find my text this evening in the 2d chapter of the Gos- 
gel of Luke, a part of the 7th verse: "And laid him in a manger, 
because there was no room for them in the inn." For four thousand 
years the world had been looking for Christ. Prophets, had been 
prophesying, and the mothers of Israel had been praying and hoping 
that they might be the mother of that child; and now he has arrived, 
we find that he is laid in a borrowed cradle. " There was no room 
for them in the inn." He might have come with all the grandeur 
and glory of the upper world. He might have been ushered into this 
world with ten thousand angels; yea, legions upon legions of angels 
might have come to herald his advent. He might have been born in 
a palace or a castle. He might have been born upon a throne, if he 
had chosen to; but he just became poor, for your sake and mine. 
He passed by mansions and thrones and dominions, and went down 
into a manger. His ci^ ,a was not only borrowed, but almost every- 
thing that he had was borrowed. I 4 " was a borrowed beast he rode 
into Jerusalem on; it was a borrowed grave they laid him in. When 
the Prince of Wales came to this country, what a welcome he re- 
ceived. There wasn't anything too good for him. When the Prince 
of Russia came to this country, I saw him as he was escorted up 
Broadway; and cheer upon cheer went up all the way. New York 
felt honored that they had such a guest. The Prince of Wales dur- 
ing the past few months has been in India, and what a reception 
he has been receiving there! Even those heathen are glad to do 
him honor. When the Prince of heaven came down, what kind of a 
reception did he meet with? There were no hallelujahs from the 
people. He found that there was no room in Bethlehem for him; 
there was no room in Jerusalem for him. When he arrived at Jeru- 
salem not only the King, but all Jerusalem was troubled. When 
16 



242 NO ROOM FOR JESUS. 

the wise men told Herod: "He is Kin or of the Jews, for we have 
seen his star in the East," not only the King upon the throne, but 
all Jerusalem was in trouble; and every man that had been lookiuo- 
for him seemed to be troubled, and the whole city is excited. The 
King sends out and commands all infants under a certain age to be 
slain. No sooner the news comes that he is born than the sword is 
unsheathed, and follows him, you may say, to Calvary. 

And has the world grown better? Is not this world about like 
that little town in Bethlehem? There is no room for him? What 
nation wants him to-day? Does this nation want him? Suppose 
you should put it to a popular vote, I don't believe there is a town 
in the whole republic that would vote for him. Does England want 
him? England and the United States are perhaps the most Chris- 
tianized countries on the globe; but I don't believe there is a town 
in England or in this country that would vote for him. In fact, I may 
say, does the Church of God want him? We have got the forms; 
we are satisfied with them: but we deny the power. I am ashamed 
to say that there are many of our churches that really would not 
want him. There would be a different state of things in the Church 
of God, to-day, if Christ should come. A great many church mem- 
bers do not want him; they say: "My life is not right." There are 
very few families in the whole city of New York that would make 
room for him. They would make room for the greatest drunkard in 
New York, rather than make room for him. Don't think the world is 
better if it don't make room for him. If he should go to Washington, 
do you think they would make room for him there? If a man should 
get up in congress and say, "Thus saith the Lord," they would hoot 
him out. If Christ should go there, they would say: "He is too 
good; he is too honest; we don't want him; we don't want honest 
men." When it comes to a real, personal God, the world don't 
want him; the nations of the earth don't want him. Does France 
want him? Does Italy want him? Oh, my friends, there is no room 
for Christ; yet it would be a glorious day if there was room for him. 
I believe the millennium would soon be here. When he went to De- 
capolis, he found a man there filled with devils, and he cast out those 
devils; and the men of Decapolis came out and besought him to go 
out of their coasts, Take what you call the fashionable society of 
New York; is he wanted there? They will talk about this church 
and that church; they will talk about Dr. So-and-so, and the Rev. So- 
and-so, and talk about the Bible in schools; but when it comes to a 
real, personal Christ, and you ask them, "Do you want Christ in 
your heart?" they say, "O sir, that is out of taste." I pity the man 
or woman that talks in that way. Is he wanted in commerce? Is 
he wanted on 'Change? If he was, men would have to keep their 
books different. Commercial men don't want him. 

You may ask the question: "Well, where is he wanted; who wants 



NO ROOM FOR JESUS. 243 

him? Where is there room for the Son of God? Who will make room 
for him?" I wonder if there is any one here that ever had that feeling 
for five minutes. I think I have had that feeling for a day. There 
are some who wonder how people can commit suicide. It's no won- 
der to me. When men feel that there is no room for them, that no 
one wants them; when they feel that they are a burden to their 
friends, and a burden to themselves, why it drives them mad. I re- 
member, one day, when I felt as if no one wanted me. I felt as if 
there was no room for me. For about twenty-four hours, I had that 
awful feeling that no one wanted me. It seems to me as if that must 
have been the feeling of Christ. His neighbors didn't want him; 
those Nazarenes didn't want him; they would have taken him to the 
brow of the hill and dashed him to the bottom; they would have torn 
him limb from limb, if they could. He went down into Capernaum; 
they didn't want him there. Jerusalem didn't want him; there was 
no room. To me, there is one of the most touching verses in the 
Bible, in the closing part of the 7th chapter of John. I believe it 
is the only place where Christ was left alone: "Every man went to 
his own house, and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives." I have 
often thought I would like to have m* t him upon that mount. He 
was on the mount alone. There was no home for him in Jerusalem. 
He was looked upon as a blasphemer; some thought he was possessed 
of devils; and so he was left alone. You could have seen him un- 
der an olive tree, alone, and I imagine that night you could have 
heard him crying to God for his own. And perhaps it was on that 
memorable occasion, or a similar occasion, when he said, "The foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man 
hath not where to lay his head." Thanks be to God, there was a 
place. I have often thought of that little home at Bethany. It says 
that Martha received him into her home. It was the best thing that 
Martha ever did; and do you think she ever regretted it? Little 
did she know that her loved brother was soon going to die, when she 
made room for Jesus. Ah, it was the best thing that Martha and 
Mary ever did when they received the village carpenter, the despised 
Nazarene, into their home. He used to have a walk down from the 
city two miles to Bethany; but there he always found room. 

But look again, look in that home where Lazarus comes home 
sick. Some think his occupation was that of a scribe, that he was a 
writer, and one day he came home weary; perhaps he had headache, 
and fever seized him. One of the leading physicians of Jerusalem 
is sent for, and the third or fourth day he tells the sisters: "There 
is no hope for your brother, he is dying, he cannot live." And when 
all earthly hope had failed, and they had given up, then the sisters 
sent for Jesus. Those two sisters sent a messenger, perhaps one of 
the neighbors, off from Bethany; perhaps he would have to go 
twenty or thirty miles away, on the other side of Jordan, for they 



244 NO ROOM FOR JESUS. 

heard Jesus was there. They did not have papers in those days to tell 
them where he was, and if there had been papers they wouldn't have 
reported his meetings. There wouldn't have been a paper that 
would have taken the pains to report his meetings. They instructed 
the messenger to say, " Him who thou lovest is sick." That was 
enough. What a title to have to a man's name! — what a eulogy to 
have to a name! And when the messenger came and told the mes- 
sage, he told him that him whom he loved was very sick; and the 
Lord Jesus turned to him and said, "I will go. Take back word to 
those two sisters. The sickness is not unto death, but I will come." 
And I can see those two sisters. How eager they are to find out 
what his success had been." "What did he say?" and the messenger 
answers, "Why, he said the sickness was not unto death; and he 
would come and see Lazarus." I can imagine Mary turns to the 
messenger and says, "I don't understand that. If he were a prophet, 
he would certainly have known that Lazarus is dead; for he was 
dying when you went away, and he was already dead when he said 
the sickness is not unto death. Are you sure he said that?" "Yes, 
that was what he said." It might have been the second day after 
his death and he didn't come; and they watch and wait, and the 
third day they look for him. "Why, it is so strange that he treats us 
in this way." The fourth day comes, and it is noon; yet he has not 
come. I can imagine that on the fourth day in the afternoon they 
receive word that Jesus is just outside of the walls of Bethany with 
his disciples; and when Le comes Martha says to him: "If thou hadst 
been here, my brother had not died," and hear what gracious words 
fall from the lips of Jesus, "Thy brother shall live again." "Martha 
said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection, at 
the last day." Hear the blissful words that fall from the lips of the 
Son of God: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth 
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth 
and believeth in me shall never die." Little did Martha think that 
he whom she was entertaining was the Resurrection and the Life, 
and what a privilege it was to have such a guest! And Christ says, 
"Where is Mary? go, call her." So Martha goes and calls Mary, and 
says, "Mary, the Master is come, and calleth for thee." Isn't there 
some Mary to-day whom he is calling for? Isn't there some unsaved 
Mary within these walls whom he is calling for? If there is, he wants 
to bind up your heart — he wants to take away your sin. And when 
Mary comes, she meets him with the very same words that fell from 
the lips of Martha: "If thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
died;" and Christ says, "Where have ye laid him?" And now 
look at him. Those two sisters are standing near him, and perhaps 
are telling him of the last moments of Lazarus, and how their hearts 
had been bleeding all these four days. And when he saw them 
weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with them, the heart 



XO ROOM FOR JESUS. 245 

of the Son of God was moved with compassion, and "Jesus wept." 
For it says, "He wept with them that wept," and the tears were 
streaming down his cheeks. "Then said the Jews, Behold how he 
loved him." And when Jesus came to the grave he said, "Take ye 
away the stone." But Martha says: "He has been dead four days, 
and by this time it is not proper to go near him." But he com- 
manded them to take away the stone. "Then they took away the 
stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up 
his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And 
I knew thou hearest me always; but because of the people which 
stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." 
And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, 
come forth." Some one has said, it was a good thing he called him 
by name, for if he hadn't, all the dead men in that yard would have 
leaped up. "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and 
foot with grave-clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. 
Jesus saith unto them, 'Loose him and let him go.' " In the little 
town of Bethany now, the sun is just sinking behind one of those 
Palestine hills; and it is now about dusk. You can see the Son of 
God perhaps, with Lazarus hold of his arm ; and they walk through 
the street. Ah, that was the happiest home on earth that night. I 
believe there was no happier home than that in Bethany that night. 
Isn't it the very best thing that you can do to make room for him? 

Mothers, if you will make room for him, you will entertain the best 
guest, the best stranger, you ever entertained. Ah, Martha didn't 
know how near death was to that home when she received Christ, 
and, dear friends, you don't know how near death may be to you; 
and when death comes, what a comfort it is to have Christ to help 
us, to have his arms underneath us and bear us up. You need him, 
and had better make room for him; and if you make room for him 
here in your hearts, he will make room for you up there. He says 
in that chapter which I read: " Let not your heart be troubled; ye 
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many 
mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare 
a place for you." Instead of his disciples comforting Christ, there is 
Christ trying to comfort them. And now, while he is up yonder 
preparing a place for us, shall we not make room for him down here? 
If the nations won't make room for him; if the church won't make 
room for him; if the families won't make room for him, thanks be to 
God, we can make room for him in our hearts. He says, Ye are the 
temples of the Holy Ghost. " Know ye not that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Ghost?" Will you make room for him this after- 
noon? Young lady, is there room for self? Is there room for the 
world? Is there room for pride? Is there room for jealousy? Is 
there room for every one and everything else but the Son of God? 
Will you turn him away, or will you to-day make room for him? 



246 NO ROOM FOR JESUS. 

Isn't it the very best thing you can do to make room for Christ ? 
When he made this world, he made room for us, plenty of it. He 
made room for himself in our hearts, but a usurper has come. My 
friends, won't you let the Son of God into your hearts; and won't 
you let him dwell with you? The only room the world found for 
him was just on the cross. Now, suppose he were to come here, 
shall he come into this hall, and shall he go through this assembly, 
and shall he not find room in your hearts and mine? Will your heart 
be full like that full inn, in Bethlehem; or will you this afternoon, 
just while I am speaking, say, "Lord Jeaus, I make room for you in 
my heart!" Mother, ought not gratitude for him who has made a 
place for your loved ones in heaven, lead you to make room for him ? 
Won't you say, " Here is plenty of love; won't you come and dwell 
in my heart?" Just the very minute you receive him, he will come. 
Am I speaking this afternoon to some poor fallen woman? Let me 
say to you, he received just such; and to-day he will come into your 
heart, if you will just make room for him. How many are there in 
this audience to-day that never have thanked the Lord Jesus for the 
blessings he has showered upon them! And, my friends, don't let 
this beautiful Sabbath pass without saying, "Jesus there shall be 
room in my heart for thee hereafter;" and then, by-and-by, he will 
receive you up yonder. If you will make room for him here in your 
heart, you may be sure he will make room you in one of his Father's 
mansions. Oh, this day and this hour, my friends, make room for 
Christ! Dear friends, don't you want him? To-day won't you make 
room for him? Won't you just bow your heads; and when you 
pray, pray that every soul that wants Christ may come to him? 



THE BLOOD— THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

We have for our subject to-night, The Blood. I would like to 
call your attention to a few passages of Scripture in different portions 
of the Word of God. The first is in the 3d chapter of Genesis, the 
21st verse: "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God 
make coats of skins and clothed them." That is the first glimpse we 
have of the shedding of blood. 

To me it is a very sweet thought that God thus dealt in grace with 
Adam before he dealt in government. Some people complain of 
God's dealing with Adam, that he was very severe; but you will 
find God dealt in love with him. Some one said he put the lamp of 
promise into his hand before he drove him out of Eden. The first 
thing was the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the 
serpent's head; and in the very same chapter we find that God con- 
sented to kill those innocent animals to make coats of skins. Of 
course, the blood had to be shed in order to furnish those garments. 
As they went out of Eden, I think Adam might have said to Eve, 
"These garments are a token of God's love." God clothed them. 
He put cherubin at the gate of the garden, and a flaming sword to 
protect the tree of life, that they should not come and eat; but we 
find, when the right time came, he took that very sword and opened 
the way back to the tree of life, so that we can all come to it now, if 
we will. 

In the 4th chapter of Genesis we find the great doctrine of the 
blood brought out: "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of 
his flock, and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect unto Abel 
and to his offering." In the morning of the creation, God had 
marked out a way for man to go. Abel took God's way; Cain want- 
ed to go his own way. That is always the way. If you had talked 
to Cain, he would have said: "I do not know why the fruit of the 
earth should not be more acceptable to God than the blood of the 
lamb. I do not understand why any one should bring blood for an 
offering; I am sure the ripened grain would be more acceptable to 
God than blood; I have a dislike for the very name of blood." You 
will find the world is full of Cainites and Abelites to-day. Some 
want to go to God in their way, and some wish to go to him in his 
own way. The man who goes in his own way gets no life; it is all 
darkness until he goes in God's way. "Abel also brought of the 
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had re- 
spect unto Abel." He was a very religious man, but religion is one 
247 



248 THE BLOOD — THE OLD TESTAMENT, 

thing, and coming to God in his own way is another. There are a 
great many who are very religious; and yet they do not like to go 
in God's way. There is no doctrine in the old Bible written and 
spoken against so much as this very doctrine of the blood. From 
the time that Abel came with his bleeding lamb, man has disliked it. 
It shows how deceitful the heart is, that we do not like to go in 
God's way. These men had been brought up with the same sur- 
soundings. Up to this time we see no difference between the two 
men as to education, and yet there is a very great difference between 
their offerings. God accepted Abel's offering and did not accept 
Cain's; and consequently sin rose up in Cain's heart, and envy and 
hatred and malice, and he rose up and slew his brother. Sin leaped 
into the world full grown at one leap. The first-born was a mur- 
derer. When Abel first got to heaven and sang the song of redemp- 
tion, there must have been but one soul in heaven, when he came 
there alone, that could sing it. The angels could not join him, and 
they must have heard it with surprise; but that chorus has been 
swelling ever since that time, swelling for the last six thousand 
years. The first man who went to heaven had brought a bleeding 
lamb, and put the blood thereof between him and his sin. 

Will you look at the 8th chapter of Genesis: "And Noah builded 
an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every 
clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." It was so im- 
portant that he should have blood put between him and his sin, that 
God had him take clean animals for a sacrifice. We find the first 
two thousand years men were traveling by that highway. Way back 
there in Eden, the scarlet line commences its course. You. will find 
it running all through the Bible; you take it out of the Bible, and 
you take out all that book teaches. Those men who are trying to 
destroy that precious doctrine are at sea without sail; they do not 
know wh'ere they are. You cannot take up a place in Scripture bub 
you find the scarlet thread running through it. If you turn over 
to the 22d chapter of Genesis, you will find the story of Isaac's sac- 
rifice. Abraham went in God's way. In the 13th verse, it is said, 
"And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind 
him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went 
and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of 
his son." There the doctrine of the blood is foreshadowed again. 
On that mountain we catch a glimpse of the blood; on Mount Moriah, 
which was close to Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified — look 
at that scene! 

For twenty-five long years, Abraham had been looking for that 
boy, and at the age of one hundred, God gave him Isaac. How he 
must have doted upon his boy! One night, God said to him, a few 
years after: "Abraham, take your son and go up to the mountain 
that I will show you, and offer him there as a sacrifice." He did not 



THE BLOOD THE OLD TESTAMENT. 249 

offer objections and ask why God had ordered it. God had told him 
to have faith in him; and without consulting* any one, not even his 
wife, he saddled an ass and took his son, and told his wife he was 
going up to a mountain. He took the wood for a fire, and a knife, 
and his son; and away he went. I can imagine that father's feel- 
ings. He said to himself: "I do not understand it; but I know that 
God never makes any mistake. He never has told me to do any- 
thing but that it has brought honor and glory to his own name." I 
can imagine how the old man looked at the boy as he lay sleeping. 
He said, "In a little while my boy will be gone." I can see the tears 
on the old man's face as he gazed at him on that first night. On the 
second night I can see there was a struggle going on within him as 
he thought, "I will only have this lovely boy one night more." The 
third day comes, and in the morning he lifts up his eyes, and over 
yonder is Mount Moriah; and he says to the two young men who are 
with him: "You stay here; and Isaac and myself will go yonder and 
worship." They had the wood; they had the knife; but the lamb 
they had not. On the way up that mountain, the boy said to the 
father: "Father, where is the sacrifice? We have no lamb." And 
the father said, and it seemed prophetic, " The Lord will provide a 
lamb." And so he did, in the fullness of time — the Son of his own 
bosom. "My son, the Lord will provide a lamb for a sacrifice," and 
on they went. The two worked together and built the altar, rolled up 
the stones and put wood on them. When eveything was ready, I 
can imagine how the old man told his child that the Lord had told 
him to take his boy and offer him up as a sacrifice; and after that 
they embraced and wept together. The old man binds his boy and 
puts him on that altar; he takes the knife, and is ready to drive it to 
the heart of his child. He is resolved to make quick work of it; but 
even while his hand is lifted, there is a voice from heaven: "Abra- 
ham, Abraham, spare thy son!" God so loved him that he spared 
his son; but he so loved you and me that he gave his own Son for us 
all. There was no voice heard at Calvary, saying, "Spare my Son." 
No angel came and took him from the cross; but he gave him up for 
us. And when Abraham looked around him, lo! there was a ram 
caught in a thicket; and he took the ram and slew him and offered 
him up for a burnt offering. And then was that scarlet thread trick- 
ling down Mount Moriah. That was typical of God's «>wn Son. We 
are told that when Abraham was on Mount Moriah, God promised 
him that through his seed all nations of the earth should be 
blessed. 

Abraham walked by way of the blood. There is no other way. 
You cannot find any of God's children that have walked any other 
way. In Exodus, 12th chapter and 13th verse, you find: "And the 
blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and 
when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not 



350 THE BLOOD — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

be upon you when I smite the land of Egypt." It is not, "And 
when I see your good resolutions, your tears, your agonies, I will 
pass over you." The blood was the token that he gave them. Some 
people say: "Oh, it was not the death of Christ; it was his life; it 
was his moral character that was significant; and you should preach 
up his life, and preach up his moral character." Let us preach these 
indeed; but let us not forget to preach his death — that Jesus Christ 
died for sinners, but did not live for them. He lay down his life and 
became a substitute for sinners. The Bible does not say that the 
living lamb shall be a token. If they had tied up a live lamb, 
death would have gone over that; but they were to take a lamb 
and kill it, and put its blood upon the door-posts; and when Death 
came down, wherever the blood was he did not go in. 

Some say: "I wish I were as good as that one who has been visit- 
ing the poor and doing deeds of charity during the last fifty years; 
wouldn't I feel safe for heaven?" But oh, my dear friends, if you 
are sheltered by the blood of the Son of God, you are as safe as any 
man or woman on the face of the earth. That is not character, that 
is not deeds; it is the blood. God says, "When I see the blood, I 
will pass over you." Moses and Abraham and Joshua were no safer 
behind the blood that the little boy; it was the blood that kept 
Death out; it was not their good works. An old minister, when dy- 
ing, said he had preached the gospel for fifty years, but when he was 
dying he did not rely upon his preaching or his works; but he re- 
quested them to bring his Bible to him, and put his hand upon the 
verse which said, "And the blood shall be to him a token," and he 
said, "I put my hope upon that verse." It was not his preaching, it 
was not his good deeds; away with them. Works are all right in 
their place; but they do not save us. It was not what he had done, 
but what the blood had done. So, it is not the strongest, nor those 
who have the best character that are the safest, but those who are 
behind the blood. Some one said, the little fly in Noah's ark was as 
safe as the elephant. It was the ark that saved the elephant, just as 
it was the ark that saved the fly. The question is, Have you got the 
token ? It was the most absurd thing in the world to the Egyptians, 
this sprinkling of the blood. I can see the haughty Egyptian riding 
through the town, and, seeing the blood sprinkled on the door-posts, 
stopping to inquire what it meant. Every one was killing a lamb, 
and he heard their bleating. He said: "You must have gone clean 
mad. What is that for?" They answered: "God has told us that 
at midnight to-night there will be a cry in Egypt, that Death is do- 
ing his work; and every house that has not got blood upon its door- 
posts Death will enter, and take the first-born." I can see that 
Egyptian now. How scornfully he looks upon those men! That is 
the way the world looks now upon it. They say: "What do you 
mean by the blood? The idea of being saved by the blood! The 



THE BLOOD THE OLD TESTAMENT. 251 

idea that the blood of another cleanses from sin!" And the proud, 
haughty world scoffs at the thought. Listen ! At night Death came 
down. He entered the palace, and the crown prince was laid low; 
and so on through every house in E^ypt, taking the first-born alike 
of the rich and the poor. And only faith, and its sign in blood upon 
the door-posts, kept him out. The blood of Jesus Christ, when it 
comes, will be worth more than all the world. Your wealth, culture 
and refinement cannot help you, when God comes to judge the 
world. 

The question is, Have you got the token? The world makes light 
and scoffs and ridicules the idea now as it did then. But the time is 
coming when the blood of Jesus Christ will be worth more to you 
than all the world. It is like Noah's ark. I can see those antedilu- 
vians scoffing at Noah. But one hour after the flood began to fall, 
Noah's ark was worth more than all the world put together. My 
friends, you had better be wise. Be sure you have got the token. 
If I go down to the depot and want to go to Chicago, I go to the 
ticket office, I buy my ticket; and when I get aboard the train the 
conductor don't know who I am, and he don't care who I am. It 
makes no difference to him whether I am white or black, learned or 
unlearned. The question is, have I got a ticket? Have I got the 
token? Pardon the illustration. The man that has got the token is 
safe. The man that has not got it is unsafe, I don't care what his 
life or character may be, and not only unsafe, but unsaved. And 
there is no salvation outside the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no 
other name whereby ye may be saved! To be sure, this scene down 
in Goshen was typical. 

Another thought. A good many Christians wonder they are so 
weak, and have not more strength, and do not grow strong like other 
people. You will find out in the eleventh verse. "And thus shall 
ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your 
staff in your hand." They were not only to kill the lamb, and take 
the blood and put it on the door-post; but they were to feed on the 
lamb. Now, the great trouble with Christians is, they do not feed 
on the Lamb. Their idea is, if you get converted and join the 
church, that is enough; instead of feeding on the Lamb, and getting 
strong and becoming giants in God's service. They have got the 
wilderness journey before them; and they should keep the staff in 
their hands, and the shoes on their feet, and feed on the Lamb. Let 
us learn the lesson to feed on the Lamb; and if we feed on Christ, 
we will have strength. If we neglect to feed and do not feed on it, 
we will become weak and feeble, and won't have the power. 

There is another thought. "This month shall be unto you the be- 
ginning of months." All the four hundred years they had been in 
Egypt were rolled away. And, sinner, all these years that you are 
in the service of sin, you are just losing them; it is all lost time. 



252 THE BLOOD THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

These four hundred years they had been in bondage in Egypt, God 
rolled away; and said: "This shall be the beginning of months." 
And you know everything dates from the blood. What is 1874? 
You date back to the blood; you can't help it. It is the beginning 
of months to you; and God made Israel date back to that night 
when the lamb was slain, that they might not forget the meaning of 
it. There is another thought in that chapter. The fourth verse is: 
"And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his 
neighbor next unto his house take it, according to the number of the 
souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for 
the lamb." It don't say, "If the lamb be too little for the house- 
hold." Christ is enough for any family, for any household. If you 
will only just take him, he is enough for the whole world and all can 
have him if they will. 

Take now, Exodus, 29th chapter, and the 16th verse: "And thou 
shalt slay the ram, and take his blood and sprinkle it round about 
upon the altar." Now, I have not got time to picture that scene, but 
I want to call your attention to this. The only way the High Priest 
came into the presence of God was to sprinkle blood round about the 
altar; and if he came without the blood, he had no communion with 
God whatever. And from the time that Adam fell until the present 
time, there has been no communion with God whatever, only through 
the blood. I don't care who the man is, if he ignores the blood, he has 
no communication with heaven; he has no intercourse with heaven. 
There is no other way. Away back in those days, you find they 
came and sprinkled blood around the altar; and then they made their 
request to God. Don't think, dear friends, that God will have any- 
thing to do with you unless you come to him in his way. If you at- 
tempt to come to God and ignore his Son, heaven will be as brass to 
you. There will be no communication between your soul and God, 
until you go by his way. Then in the 30th chapter and the 10th verse, 
" And Aa -on shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in 
a year, with the blood of the sin offering of atonements." Atone- 
ment means at one. It brings the sinner and God at one. The only 
way they can come together is through the blood of Jesus. 

Now, turn to Leviticus, 8th chapter and 23d verse. "And he slew 
it, and Moses took of the blood of it and put it upon the tip of Aaron's 
right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great 
toe of his right foot." I used to read such passages and used to say, 
"What in the world does that mean?" Blood upon the ear, the 
hand and the foot! What for? It seems very plain to me now. 
Blood upon the ear! A man can't hear the voice of God unless he 
is sheltered behind the blood. It is only the blood-bought that can 
hear the voice of God. Why you know, in the 12th chapter of John, 
when God spake to his Son and said, "I have glorified my name 
and will glorify it again," the people said it thundered. They could 



THE BLOOD THE OLD TESTAMENT. 253 

not tell the difference between the voice of God and thunder. But 
God's own children can hear it, and they can understand it. You 
take a man sheltered behind the blood, and let him come into this 
meeting, and he will understand what I mean. But next to him a 
man may sit and say, "What in the world is that man talking 
about?" It is a mystery to him; he don't understand it. Why? 
Because his ear is not open. No uncircumcised ear can hear the 
voice of God. And it is important to hear right. 

Then blood upon the hand. A man may work for God, but it is 

only the blood-bought hand that can work for God. And now I tell 

you, dear friends, the greatest, the grandest mistake the church of God 

is making to-day, is getting ungodly men to do something for the 

church. It is keeping hundreds of men out of the kingdom of God. 

We take ungodly men and make them trustees of the church, and 

take their money and say; "Their money is just as good as anybody 

else's money;" and these men have an idea that they are buying their 

way to heaven; and they are even better, in their own opinion, than 

many true Christians. Then there are ungodly men singing in the 

choir and helping in the service of God. No man can do anything 

to please God until he is first sheltered behind the blood. I don't care 

who he is; I don't care what his life has been; God cannot accept 

it; he can't walk with God. Until sheltered behind the blood, he 

cannot work or walk with God. A man will have no desire to walk 

with God until he is sheltered behind the blood, and brought into 

communion with God. God came down on sundry occasions and 

talked with Abraham and Jacob; but God never came down and 

walked with man until he put them behind the blood in Goshen. 

When the Israelites came to the Red Sea, they went through the 

Red Sea like giants. He walked with them in the wilderness. When 

they wanted bread, he opened his hand and fed them; when they 

waited water, he brought it out of the rock. God walked with them. 

When Christ was down here, they said to him, "What shall we do?" 

Did he tell them to build colleges; teach in the Sabbath-school class; 

preach to the drunkard and feed the hungry; and clothe the naked? 

Ten thousand times, No! This is it: The work of God is to believe 

on him; and if a man won't believe in God's Son, he cannot hope to 

get to heaven in any other way. He that climbeth up the wall is a 

thief and a robber. No uncircumcised hand can work for God. 

No uncircumcised foot can walk with God. Some may say: "I 
cannot understand it; it is a very strange thing why God should de- 
mand blood." I will tell you why. He says, "The soul that sinneth 
shall surely die." That is the penalty. God's justice must be kept. 
He rides in a chariot with two wheels of which justice is one and 
mercy another; and justice must be done as well as mercy. Why 
does God demand blood? God demands life. You have sold your- 
selves for naught. Christ comes and takes the place of the sinner, 



254 THE BLOOD — THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

and dies in his stead; and it is through his precious, blessed work of 
atonement on Calvary that we are saved. If there is any other way, 
my friends, 1 cannot find it. The life of all flesh is in the blood, and 
God has stamped the flesh with death; and he says it shall never 
come into his presence. And here comes in the glorious truth of the 
resurrection: "I am the resurrection and the life." All lost life in 
the first Adam; all got it in the second. Some people say: "It is 
a great mystery that sin came into the world." It is a greater mystery 
that God came down and bore the brunt of it himself — that he took 
the saved into his own bosom and opened the way to the tree of life. 
Let me ask you to take up your Bibles and take up this great and 
glorious subject and study it a while; and you will have a reason 
for the hope within you. You will be able to tell how you are saved. 
It is not your good deeds, your tears, your prayers; but it is the fin- 
ished work of Jesus Christ that saves you, because he died and gave 
himself for us. I do not believe any one can get a true glimpse of 
Jesus Christ without loving him. 

There is a story of a man that went to California, when the excite- 
ment broke out, and left his wife and child in New England. He 
said as soon as he was successful he would send for them. It was a 
long time before he was successful; but at last he sent the money, 
and his wife and child came on to New York, and got on to one of 
those beautiful steamers, and started for San Francisco; and every- 
thing was going well. All at one, however, a cry was heard, "Fire, 
fire!" It ran through the vessel; the pumps were set to work and 
they got all the water they could; but they could not put it out. 
The flames gained on them, and the captain ordered out the boats. 
But there were not life-boats enough to take all the passengers; and 
among the rest left on deck was the mother of the lovely boy. 
The last boat was pushing away. If she did not get into that boat, 
she must perish. She begged of the men to take her and her boy; 
but they said, "We dare not take any more." Her tears and en- 
treaties at last touched the heart of one of the men; and he said, 
"Let us take her." But the others would not; and at last they 
compromised by saying, " We will take one." What did that moth- 
er do? Did she leap into that life-boat and leave her boy behind to 
perish? That is not a mother's love. She hugged him, she kissed 
him and she dropped him over into the life-boat, and said; "If you 
live to see your father, tell him I died to save you." Supposing that 
young boy has grown up to be a man, and he speaks contemptuously 
of such a mother, would you not say, " He is an ungrateful wretch?" 
But, sinner, what are you doing with Jesus? Did he not do more 
than that? Was not he numbered among the transgressors for us? 
Was not he wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our ini- 
quities? Did not he die for the ungodly? 

There is a story of a regiment in the Austrian army that was 



THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 255 

guilty of mutiny; and as they did not want to inflict the penalty of 
death upon the whole regiment, they decided that one man in ten 
should be shot. The regiment was drawn out in line, and the officer 
went along taking out the tenth man. There was a father and a son. 
The son knew he could be spared better than the father. He was 
so anxious that the father should not be shot that he watched the of- 
ficer, and saw, as he came nearer, that it would fall on his father. So 
the son stood behind the father, and pushed him into the place of 
life and took the plare of death himself. So with us. We were 
condemned to die, and there was no hope and no way of escape; and 
Christ said, u Father, let me go and take that place;" and he left the 
throne, and he came from heaven and died in our stead. And do 
you get up and go out of this hall and say, "I see no reason I should 
love Christ?" A young man said to me the other night; " I can get 
along without Christ; 1 don't need him." Well, my friend, if you 
can get along without him he can get along without you. But he 
don't want you to perish; he wants you to live. May you find ref- 
uge behind the blood of Christ is my prayer. 



THE BLOOD -THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Those who were here yesterday will remember that we had for our 
subject, the Blood, as found in the Old Testament. To-day, we will 
consider it in the New Testament. There are those who say that it is all 
one story; that instead of being two books, it is but one. There is 
one class of people who say they believe in the New, but not in the 
Old Testament; and another class beleive in the Old Testament, but 
not in the New. But if you read it carefully, you cannot divide it. 
If you change any part of it, it is all gone. The very passages that 
some wish to throw out of the Old Testament and yet believe the 
New Testament, these very passages confirm the others. Some say, 
"I do not believe there was such a thing as a deluge; we do not be- 
lieve there was any such thing as a flood." But Christ says, " As it 
was in the days of Noah, so shall it be." Some say, "We do not be- 
lieve that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed in flames and 
buried; do you?" Yes, we believe what Christ believed. He says, 
"Remember Lot's wife." They say, "We do not believe the whale 
ever swallowed Jonah; do you?" Yes, we believe what Christ 



256 THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

taught; and when Christ says, "As Jonah was three days in the 
whale's belly," he put his divine soul into the Old Testament as in 
the New. It is one book, therefore. Whoever touches any part of 
the Bible, touches it all. That is what the questioner is trying to do, 
to break down the Word of God, and our confidence in God's tes- 
timony, and God's record of his Son. Yesterday I did not have time 
to go through the Old Testament, and say all I wanted to say about 
the blood as there described. To-day we will pass over into the 
New Testament, and see what Scripture says about blood in the New 
Testament. 

The first thing I call your attention to is, that we are redeemed by 
the blood. There is no other redemption. In the 1st Epistle of 
Peter, 1st chapter, 18th verse: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were 
not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your 
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, . . . but 
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and 
without spot." You are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. 
Redemption is more than salvation, really. A man might rescue 
another from sudden death. He might see a man in a carriage, with 
the horses dashing through the street, and in a moment his life 
would be gone, dashed to pieces against the wall. He might stop 
that steed and save the man's life. He would be the savior of that 
man. Christ is more than our Savior. He is our Redeemer. He 
has redeemed us with his blood. Redemption is to buy back. 
When Christ came, he bought us back. He says, You have sold 
yourselves for naught; but you shall be redeemed without money. 
Though salvation is free to us, and it is without money and without 
price; yet it cost God all that he had to do it. It was the blood of 
Christ, his only Son, that redeemed' us. It cost him his precious 
blood to buy us back. Do you think silver and gold could have re- 
deemed this world? Why God could have created milions of worlds 
of gold, if silver and gold could have done it; but we could be re- 
deemed not by such corruptible things as silver and gold. The 
apostle looks upon these with scorn and contempt, when it comes to 
the subject of redemption. You are redeemed by the precious blood 
of the Son of God, as of a lamb without a spot or blemish. The joy 
of every Christian is, that he has been bought back by the blood of 
Christ. Once, when I was going to speak in a little town, on our 
way there, there was a young man riding in front of us; and I said 
to my companion: "Who is that young man? I do not remember 
to have seen him before." He said, "Look over there. Do you see 
that beautiful meadow, and that large farm, and the house over there? 
That young man's father drank that all up while he lived, and his 
son, there, went away, and went industriously to work, and accumu- 
lated money, and came back, redeemed the old homestead, and took 
h ; s mother out of the poorhouse, and is now on his way to churcli, 



THE BLOOD — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 257 

there, with his mother." That was the story of the old Adam. He 
did the same thing. He sold us out of the hands of justice; and the 
Son of God came to buy us back. A friend of mine was coming 
from Dublin, some time ago, and met an Irish boy with an English 
sparrow in his hands. The bird was trembling for its life, and try- 
ing to get back its liberty; but the boy was stronger than the spar- 
row, and would not let it escape. The man tried to get the boy to 
let the bird go. He said: "My boy, why don't you open your hands 
and let the bird fly away?" The boy replied, "Faith, and I won't be 
doing that, when I have been after him for hours, and have just got 
him." Then he tried to get the boy to do it from principle, telling 
him that it was right to let the poor bird have its freedom again; but 
the boy would not do it, and finally the man bought him with a piece 
of money. When he put the money into the boy's hand, in so doing 
he redeemed the sparrow. At first, the little thing did not realize 
that it had its liberty. It chirped a few times, and looked around, 
and then it tried its little wings again, and went up singing, as if it 
said: "Thank you, thank you; you have redeemed me." That is 
what Christ did. And he says, "I will contend with him that con- 
tendeth against thee." He gave us our ransom. He redeemed with 
his own blood this lost world. There is redemption for every soul 
that wants to be redeemed. 

We are not only redeemed by blood, but we are justified. This is 
more than pardon. If a man is washed in the blood, he is as just as 
if he had never sinned. The question was asked me, " How can a 
man be justified with God?" A man is justified by his precious 
blood. In the 3d chapter of Romans, 23d verse, it says, " For all 
have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Being justified 
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." 
So, if a man has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, he is justified. 

Or, in other words, God says, " I have nothing in my heart against 
you." We talk about our sins being pardoned and forgiven. In re- 
ality, no sinner is forgiven. Sin has to be atoned for, and the Son 
of God has made atonement. He has justified us with his own 
blood. In the 5th chapter of Romans, 9th verse, it says: "Much 
more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from 
wrath through him. 

Then, another thing the blood does; it makes us all equal — one 
kindred, with one tong-ue, one language. A man that has been shel- 
tered by the blood of Christ, he talks the same language with every 
other that has been so sheltered. You can tell a man that talks the 
language of Zion. He may not be able to talk the same language, 
but his language has the same spirit. Paul says, in the 17th chapter 
of Acts, 26th verse: " And hath made of one blood all nations of men 
for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Hath made of all nations 
one bloodl The blood of Jesus Christ brings us together, makes us 
17 



258 THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

one, brings us all to one level. Just before the war came on, during 
the days of slavery, I was in Boston. They were very exciting times 
there then; and Dr. Kirk was preaching on the subject of the cross. 
It was during the great strife, when there was a great deal of 
hatred and suspicion against foreigners then in our country. It was 
in the time of the Know-Nothing party; and there was a great deal 
of feeling against the blacks and a great deal of feeling against the 
Irish. Dr. Kirk said, when he came up to the cross to get salvation, 
he found a poor black man on the right and an Irishman on his left; 
and the blood came trickling down from the wounded side of the 
Son of God, and made them all brothers and all alike and equal. 
That is what the blood does. It makes us all one kindred, and 
brings us all into the family of God. We are all saved by the same 
blood. 

The blood has two cries. It either cries for our condemnation 
or for our salvation. If we reject the blood, it cries out for our 
condemnation. If we are sheltered behind the blood, and if we fly 
to that blood for refuge, it cries out for our protection and for our 
salvation. We will turn a moment to the First Colossians, 1st chap- 
ter and 20th verse: "And having made peace through the blood of 
his cross;" and then with that let us read a verse that one will find 
in John, 19th chapter and the 34th verse: "But one of the soldiers 
with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and 
water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and 
he knoweth that he saith true." He saw the blood that came out of 
that side, and thought, now there is the blood that speaketh peace. 
But you know when Pilate washed his hands and said, "I am inno- 
cent of the blood of this just man," the mob cried out, " Let his 
blood be upon us and upon our children." Not to save us, not to re- 
deem us, not to wash us, not to justify us, not to cleanse us; but, "Let 
his blood be upon us and upon our children. We are responsible for 
the act." They took it upon themselves; but what a prayer it was! 
Would to God that the prayer had been: "His blood be upon us 
and our children to cleanse us, and save us, and speak peace to our 
guilty conscience." How it would have been blessed! But their 
cry was, let his blood be upon us, said in all scorn and derision. That 
is the cry to-day of hundreds of thousands: "We are not going to 
be saved by the blood; we don't believe in any such thing. We 
will be responsible for rejecting him and casting him away." Oh, 
my friends, if we ignore the blood we are lost. There is no other 
way of being cleansed from our sins It says in the 1st chapter of 
Revelation and 5th verse: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood." Now, if he so washed us, we are 
clean. If the Son, by his coming, washed us, and if the blood did 
not cleanse us, how are we to be cleansed? How are we ever to 
come into the presence of the pure and holy God, and see him in 



THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 259 

high heaven, where he sits upon his throne? No man until he is 
washed by the blood can see God — he will have no desire to see him. 
Some people tell us that the Bible does not contain anything on 
the subject of the blood. I received a letter from a lady, some time 
ago, stating that it was the Apostles that taught it; that Christ did 
not say one solitary word about it. So she threw out the Epistles 
and the teaching of Paul, and said she took the teachings of Jesus 
Christ, because there was no blood in them. In Matthew, 26th chap- 
ter and 28th verse, it says; "For this is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." And then 
you will find, in the 9th chapter of Hebrews, 22d verse, that "With- 
out the shedding of blood there is no remission." I would like to 
ask the people who believe in the Bible and yet try to ignore the 
doctrine of blood, What are you going to do with that portion of 
Scripture where it says that "Without the shedding of blood there is 
no remission?" From the time that Adam fell in Eden to the pres- 
ent time, there has never been a soul saved but by the shedding of 
blood; there has never been a soul prepared for the coming to God 
except by the shedding of blood. The Holy Ghost comes and dwells 
with that soul that is washed in the blood of redemption, and it be- 
comes a temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in, but never until it has 
been cleansed by the shedding of the blood. 

"There is a fountain filled with blood 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins." 

Why do we sing that song? Why do we like to sing that hymn? 
It is because it has got the blood in it. The hymns that have the 
scarlet line running through them will never be lost. That hymn 
never will be lost; as long as there is a church on earth, it will be 
sung. There is not a nation in the world, where there is a Christian, 
but that they have that hymn translated into their own language. I 
question if there is an hour in the whole twenty-four but in some 
parts of the earth they are singing that hymn — 

" There is a fountain rilled with blood 
DTawn from Immanuel's veins." 

Why do you like that hymn, 

'• Just as I am without one plea, 
Save that thy blood was shed for met" 

Why is it that that hymn is so popular? Why does the Church 
of God like it and sing it? Why do we sing it so often? Because 
it has got the precious blood in it. Then there is the familiar hymn, 

" Rock of ages, cleft for me, k 

Let me hide myself in thee." 

Why do we all like that so much? Because it speaks of that foun- 



260 THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

tain which has been opened in the house of David for sin and un- 
cleanness, whereby your sins may be washed away in the blood of 
the Lamb. Everything that blood touches, it redeems. When the 
blood came out of the Son of God and touched the Roman spear, it 
touched the Roman covenant; and when the blood came out and 
touched this earth, it redeemed it. Though the usurper has got 
it now, Jesus Christ will have it by and by. Everything that blood 
touches, it purines and redeems. 

And so, my friends, what you want is to have the blood applied 
to you, applied to your sins. You want to be cleansed by it; and as 
long as there is blood upon the mercy-seat, there is hope for the 
vilest sinner that walks the face of the earth. God, seeing us look 
at the blood upon the mercy-seat, says: "Press in! Press in, sin- 
ners! Press into the kingdom of God!" The vilest can come, if he 
will. That is what the blood of Christ was shed for; to cover sin, 
and to bless us, and wash us, and prepare us for God's kingdom. 
You may turn a moment to Hebrews, 10th chapter. I wish I had 
time to go through Hebrews with this wonderful subject; for there 
is more said in Hebrews about the blood than in any other book in 
the Bible. Now, it says at the 19th verse: "Having, therefore, 
brethren, boldness to enter .into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by 
a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the 
vail, that is to say, his flesh." Before, he had to go to the high 
priest; but now God has opened a new and living way and 
made all his children kings and priests; and we don't now need any 
one to intercede for us. When Christ said, "It is finished," the 
vail of the temple was rent. It does not say it was rent from the 
bottom up. No, it was rent downwards. It was God that seized 
that vail and tore it open; and God came out, and man can go in 
there now. Through his flesh the vail was rent; and now all of us, 
through the precious blood of Christ, are made kings and priests, 
and can go boldly into the holiest. Now a living way has been 
opened — that is what Christ has done. "By a new and living way 
which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his 
flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw 
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts 
sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure 
water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, 
for he is faithful that promised." Now turn to the 28th verse of that 
same chapter: "He that despised Moses's law died without mercy, 
under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, sup- 
pose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot 
the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, where- 
with he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto 
the Spirit of grace?" 

Now. I would like to ask friends here to-day that ignore the whole 



THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 261 

subject of the blood, where is your hope? What is it based on? 
What are you building y^ur hopes of heaven on? Is it on your 
good deeds? He says those men that despised Moses's law died 
without mercy. How much more worthy of punishment shall he be 
thought who hath trodden under foot the blood of the Son of God, 
the blood of the covenant? I heard of a man, some time ago, that 
was going to get into heaven in his own way. He did not believe 
in the Bible or the love of God, but was going to get in on account 
of his good deeds. He was very liberal, gave a great deal of money, 
and he thought the more he gave the better it would be in the other 
world. I don't, as a general thing, believe in dreams, but sometimes 
they teach good lessons. Well, this man deamed one night that he 
was building a ladder to heaven, and he dreamed that every good 
deed he did it put him one round higher on this ladder, and when he 
did an extra good deed it put him up a good many rounds; and in 
his dream he kept going, going up, until at last he got out of sight, 
and he went on and on doing his good deeds, and the ladder went 
up higher and higher, until at last he thought he saw it run up to the 
very throne of God. Then, in his dream, he died, and a mighty 
Voice came rollling down from above, u He that climbeth up some 
other way, the same is a thief and a robber;" and down came his lad- 
der. And he woke from his sleep and thought, u If I go to heaven 
I must go some other way." My friends, it is by the way of the 
blood that we are to get to heaven. If a man has got to pay his way 
there, only a few can get there. What are you going to do with 
these poor sick people, who cannot work at all and make money to 
bestow on others? Are they to be lost and damned? No, thank 
God! He has made the way so easy and open that the weak and 
the young, and the smallest and poorest can be saved, if they will. 
He has made a new and living way right up to the Throne. The 
despised and persecuted can go up, as well as anybody else. Let me 
read that again : " He that despised Moses's law died without mercy, 
under two or three witnesses." That is established. You can go 
out of the Bible and find that in history. 

Now, friends, let me ask you, Where is your hope? How are you 
going to be saved? If the Bible is true, and 1 suppose there is 
hardly one here but believes in it, what are you going to do with 
that passage that says in Hebrews, " Without the shedding of blood 
there is no remission?" If you have this blessed gospel of Jesus 
Christ offered to you, sent to you, and you send back the insulting 
message that you don't want it, where is your hope? What is your 
hope? How are you going to be saved? How are you going to es- 
cape the condemnation of the law? Now, I have traveled consid- 
erably during the last two or three years and have met many minis- 
ters; and I have learned that the man who makes much of the blood 
in his preaching, much of the atonement, and holds up Christ as the 



262 THE BLOOD THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

only substitute, God honors his preaching; and the man that covers 
up this glorious truth, there is no power in his preaching. He may 
draw great crowds, and they may hover around him for a few years; 
but when he at last goes, the church itself goes down, because it had 
no power in itself, and their prayer- meetings had no power. The 
minister would get up a good choir, and a great crowd to hear the 
music and the fine singing; but when it comes to the real Spirit of 
power they have not got it. And any religion that takes the blood 
and covers it up, hasn't any power. 

I was in a city in Europe, and a young minister came to me and 
said: " Moody, what makes the difference between your success in 
preaching and mine? Either you are right, and I am wrong; or I 
am right and you are wrong." Said I: "I don't know what the 
difference is; for you have heard me, and I have never heard you 
preach. What is the difference?" Said he: "You make a great 
deal out of the death of Christ, and I don't make anything out of it. 
I don't think it has anything to do with it. I preach the life." Said 
I: "What do you do with this: 'He hath borne our sins in his own 
body on the tree?'" Said he, "I never preached that." Said T: 
"What do you do with this: 'He was wounded for our transgres- 
sions; He was bruised for our iniquities, and with his stripes we 
are healed?'" Said he, "I never preached that." "Well," 
said I again, "what do you do with this: 'Without the shedding of 
blood there is no remission?'" Said he, "I never preached that." I 
asked him, "What do you preach?" "Well," he says, "I preach a 
moral essay." Said I: " My friend, if you take the blood out of the 
Bible, it is all a myth to me." Said he, " I think the whole thing is 
a sham." "Then," said I, "I advise you to get out of the ministry 
very quick. I would not preach a sham. If the Bible is untrue, let 
us stop preaching, and come out at once like men, and fight against 
it, if it is a sham and untrue; but if these things are true, and Jesus 
Christ left heaven and came into this world to shed his blood and 
save sinners, then let us lay hold of it and preach it, in season and 
out of season." In the college at Princeton this last year, when the 
students were ready to go forth into the world, the old man, their in- 
structor, would stand up there and say, "Young men, make much of 
the blood. Young men, make much of the blood!" And I have 
learned this, that a minister who makes much of the blood and makes 
much of substitution and holds Christ up as the sinner's only hope, 
God blesses his preaching. And if the apostles didn't preach that, 
what did they preach? You take the great doctrine of substitution 
out of the preaching of Paul, Peter, John, James, and Philip, and of 
all those holy men, and you take out all that they preached. And so, 
my friends, there don't seem to be one ray of hope for the man that 
ignores the blessed, blessed subject of the blood. "Without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission." 



THE BLOOD — THE NEW TESTAMENT. 263 

It is said of Julian, the great apostate, that when he was trying to 
stamp out Christianity in the days of Rome's prosperity, before it re- 
ceived Christianity; when he was trying to drive those Christians 
away, he received a mortal wound, and as he pulled the spear out of 
his side, he took a handful of the blood that gushed forth from the 
wound, and threw it toward heaven as he reeled and staggered, cry- 
ing out, "There, Galilean! Thou has conquered!" We are all con- 
qured, overcome by the blood of the Lamb. 

The only way to heaven is by the word of his testimony and his 
blood. Revelation is full of the subject. It would take days to go 
through Revelation and see all it contains about blood. The only 
thing that Christ left down here in the world of his person was his 
blood. His flesh, his bones, he took away with him; and when he 
hung Jhere on Calvary, and the blood came out of his hands, and out 
of his feqfc, and from his bruised side, and trickled down on the earth, 
it was never gathered up. It was left there; and God holds the 
world responsible for it. What are you going to do with it? Are 
you going to trample it under foot; and send a message to heaven 
that you don't care for it, that you despise, hate it? Or, are you go- 
ing to find a refuge and shelter behind it? It is Christ's, shed for 
the salvation of every soul here within these walls. It is said 
every man that goes up, goes by the way of the blood. You cannot 
think about Abel, but you think of the bleeding lamb. So, my 
friends, the question to-day is, what are we going to do with this sub- 
ject? I have heard of an English lady who was greatly troubled 
about her soul, for several months; and the way her conversion was 
brought about, was this: She told her servant one day to go out and 
kill a lamb, and told him what to do with all the different parts 
except the blood; and presently, after he had killed the lamb, he 
came and asked her, "What shall I do with the blood of the lamb?" 
And God used it as the arrow that should go down into her soul; and 
she began to walk her room and ask herself, " What shall I do with 
the blood of the Son of God?" What are you going to do with that 
precious blood that flows out of Calvary? Are you going to let it 
cleanse you from sin? What say you? Will you take it, and by 
and by stand with your garments made white by the blood of the 
Lamb, and sing the song of redemption? 

During the war, a New York minister, I think it was, came down 
among the soldiers in the hospital, and preached to them the way to 
Christ, and helped them in their dying hours. He found one man 
whose eyes were closed, and who was muttering something about 
"Blood, blood;" and the old doctor thought he was thinking of the 
carnage of the battle-field and the blood he had seen there; and go- 
ing up to him, he tried to divert his mind. But the young man 
looked up, and said: "Oh, doctor, it was not that that I was thinking 
of; 1 was thinking how precious the blood of Christ is to mo, now 



264 , HEAVEN. 

that I am dying. It covers all my sins." Oh, my friends, the dy- 
ing hour will come. We are hastening on to death. If Christ is not 
your all in all, what is to become of you? I was on the Pacific coast, 
some time ago; and there they were telling me about a stage-driver 
who had died a little while ago. And you that have been there know 
that those men who drive those coaches make a good deal of the 
brake; for they have to keep their feet upon it all the time going 
down the mountains. And as this poor fellow was breathing his 
last in his bed, he cried out: "I am on the down grade, and can't 
reach the brake!" Those were his last words. There was not a 
stage-driver there, when I was there, but was talking about it. Just 
about that time, Rev. Alfred Cookman, a very eminent man in our 
country, was dying, here in New York or New Jersey — a holy man 
of God, who had lifted the banner of Christ and won many to Christ; 
and he was passing away in the prime of life. There stood his wife 
and friends around his bedside, and there was seemingly a heavenly 
halo around that couch; and just expiring, he said: "I am sweeping 
through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb!" Those were 
his last words. They live to-day in the nation. I believe they will 
never be forgotten. Your time will come, and then it will be ajrand 
to die with those words upon your lips — "I am sweeping through the 
gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb." 



HEAVEN. 

"Oar Father, which art in heaven." Lukb 11 : 8. 

We have for our subject this evening, heaven. It is not as some 
talk about heaven, as just the air. I find a good many people now 
that think there is no heaven, only just here in this world; that this 
is all the heaven we will ever see. I talked with a man the other 
day, who said he thought there is nothing to justify us in believing 
there is any other heaven than that which we are in now. Well, if 
this is heaven, it is a very strange kind of heaven — this world of 
sickness, and sorrow, and sin. If he thinks this is really all the 
heaven we are going to see, he has a queer idea of it. There are 
three heavens spoken of in the Bible, and the Hebrews acknowledge 
in their writings three heavens. The first is the aerial — the air, the 
wind, the air that the birds fly in; that is one heaven. Then, there 



HEAVEN. 265 

is the heaven of the firmament, where the stars are; and then there 
is the heaven of heavens, where God's throne is and the mansions of 
the Lord are — the mansions of light and peace, the home of the bles- 
sed, the home of the Redeemer, where the angels dwell. That is 
the heaven that we believe in, and the heaven that we want to talk 
about to-day. We believe it is just as much a place and just as 
much a city as New York is, and a good deal more; because New 
York will pass away, and that city will abide forever. It has foun- 
dations, whose builder and maker is God. I do not think it is wrong 
for us to speculate, and think about, and talk about heaven. I was 
going to meeting once, some time ago, when I was asked by a friend 
on the way, "What will be the subject of your speech?" I said, 
" My subject will be heaven." He scowled, and I asked, "Why do 
you look so?" He said: "I was in hopes you would give us some- 
thing practical to-night. We cannot know anything about heaven. 
It is all speculation." Now, all Scripture is given us by the inspira- 
tion of God. Some is given for warnings, some for encouragement. 
If God did not want to think about heaven and talk about it down 
here, there would not be so much said about heaven in Scripture. 
There would not be so many promises about it. If we thought more 
about those mansions God is preparing for us, we would be thinking 
more of things above, and less of things of this earth. 

I like to locate heaven, and find out all about it I can. I expect 
to live there through eternity. If I was going to dwell in any place 
in this country; if I was going to make it my home, I would want 
to inquire all about the place, about its climate, about what kind of 
neighbors I was going to have, about the schools for my children, 
about everything, in fact, that I could learn concerning it. If any 
of you who are here were going to emigrate, going off to some other 
country, and I was going to take that for my subject to-night, why r 
would not all your ears be open to hear what you could learn about 
it? Would you then be looking around to see who was sitting next 
you; and who among your acquaintances were here; and what peo- 
ple were thinking about you? You would be all interested in hear- 
ing of this country that I was talking about. You could not think 
anything about the latest fashion, or about some woman's bonnet. 
If it is true that we are going to spend eternity in another world,, 
and that God is inviting us to spend it with him, shall we not look 
and listen, and find out where he is, and who is there, and how we 
are to get there? Soon after I was converted, an infidel got hold of 
me one day, and he asked me why I looked up when I prayed. He 
said that heaven was no more above us than below us, that heaven 
was everywhere. Well, I was greatly bewildered, and the next time I 
prayed it did seem as though I was praying into the air. His words 
had sowed the seed. Since then I have not only become better ac- 
quainted with the Bible, but I have come to see that heaven is above 



266 



HEAVEN. 



us; it is upward. If you will turn to the 17th chapter of Genesis, 
you will see that it says that God went up from Abraham. In the 
3d chapter of John, in the wonderful conversation that Christ had with 
Nicodemus, he told them that he came down from heaven; and as 
we read in the 1st chapter of Acts, "They saw him go up into 
heaven" — not down — " and the clouds received him out of their 
sight." If you will turn to the 8th chapter of 1st Kings, 30th verse, 
I will show you that God has a dwelling-place. A great many peo- 
ple have gone upon their reason until they have reasoned away God. 
They say God is not a person that we can ever see. He is the God of 
Nature. "And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and 
of thy people Israel, when they shall pray towards this place; and 
hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place, and when thou hearest, for- 
give." Some people are trying to find out and wonder how far 
heaven is away. There is one thing we know about that; it is, that 
it is not so far away but that God can hear us when we pray. There 
is not a sigh goes up to him but that he hears it. He hears his chil- 
dren when they cry. God has a throne and a dwelling-place in 
heaven. In the 7th chapter of 2d Chronicles, 14th verse, it says, "If 
my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, 
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then 
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their 
land." 

There are a good many promises given us to encourage us to pray, 
and to teach us that God hears us when we do pray; that he is not 
so far away but that he hears us. When Christ was on earth, they 
came to him and said, "Teach us how to pray to our heavenly Fa- 
ther." He taught them a prayer. It began, "Our Father which 
art" — not on earth — no; but, "Our Father which art in heaven." 
Now, when we go to heaven we will be with our Father himself. If 
you will turn to the 7th chapter of Acts, 15th verse, it says, "But 
he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, 
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of 
God" — which shows that heaven is not so far away but that God can 
allow us to look into it, if he will. "And they stoned Stephen, call- 
ing upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Thus we 
have it clearly established from Scripture teachings, that not only is 
heaven the dwelling-place of God the Father, but of Jesus Christ the 
Son. A great many think that there is but one person. There is 
but one God; but there are three persons, God the Father, God the 
Son, and God the Holy Ghost. When I get to heaven, I expect to 
see them all there. There is Christ standing on the right hand of 
God. Stephen saw him. We have got Christ there; heaven would 
not be all that we love unless Christ was there. I would be un- 
happy, when I got to heaven, if I could not find him there who 
redeemed me, who died for me, who bought me with his own blood. 



HEAVEN. 267 

Some one asked a Christian man once, what he expected to do when 
he got to heaven? He said he expected to spend the first thousand 
years in looking at Jesus Christ, and after that he would look for Peter, 
and then'for James, and for John; and all the time he could conceive of 
would be joyfully filled with looking upon these great persons. But 
oh, it seems to me that one look at Jesus Christ will more than re- 
ward us for all that we have ever done for him down here; for all 
the sacrifices we can possibly make for him, just to see him; and not 
only that, but we shall become like him when we once have seen 
him, because we shall be like the Master himself. Jesus, the Savior 
of the world, will be there. We shall see him face to face. 

It won't be the pearly gates; it won't be the jasper walls, and the 
streets paved with transparent gold, that shall make it heaven for us. 
These would not satisfy us. If these were all, we would not want to 
stay there forever. I heard the other day of a child whose mother 
was very sick; and while she lay very low, one of the neighbors took 
the child away to stay with her until the mother should be well 
again. But instead of getting better, the mother died; and they 
thought they would not take the child home until the funeral was all 
over; and would never tell her about her mother being dead. So a 
while afterward they brought the little girl home. First she went 
into the sitting-room to find her mother; then she went into the par- 
lor, to find her mother there; and she went from one end of the house 
to the other, and could not find her. At last she said, "Where is my 
mamma?" And when they told her her mamma was gone, the little 
thing wanted to go back to the neighbor's house again. Home had 
lost its attractions to her, since her mother was not there any longer. 
No; it is not the jasper walls and the pearly gates that are going to 
make heaven attractive. It is the being with God. We shall be in 
the presence of the Redeemer; we shall be forever with the Lord. 

We have now seen that God the Father and God the Son are 
dwelling in heaven. Will you turn to the 18th chapter of Matthew, 
10th verse: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; 
for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the 
face of my Father which is in heaven." So we shall have the com- 
pany of angels when we go there. We find when Gabriel came 
down and told Zachariah that he should have a son, Zachariah 
doubted his word; and Gabriel replied: "I am Gabriel, that stands 
in the presence of God." It says in Luke, 2d chapter and 13th verse, 
that after one angel had proclaimed that Jesus was born in Bethle- 
hem, there was a multitude of the heavenly host telling out the won- 
derful story. So, we have angels in heaven. We have God the 
Father, and Christ the Son, and angels dwelling there. The angels, 
undoubtedly, wander away from the throne of God to this worldly 
sphere, to watch over the soul's welfare of those they have left be- 
hind. It may be that some ange's are hovering over the souls here 



268 HEAVEN. 

to-night, to see if some one will decide in favor of the Lord's side. 
And we have not only the presence of the angels already estab- 
lished, but we have friends. Those who have died in the Lord are 
there. Do you believe that Stephen is not there, after his martyr- 
dom? Do you believe God did not answer that prayer of his, " Lord, 
receive my spirit?" Undoubtedly, the moment that spirit left that 
body it winged its way to the world of light. Do you think those 
who have died in Christ are not there with the Master to-day? 
What does Paul mean when he says, " Absent from the body, pres- 
ent with the Lord?" All the redeemed ones are in heaven. We 
talk about "the best of earth." They are not down here. They are 
up in heaven. The best that ever trod this earth are up there, 
around the throne, singing their songs of praise, the sweetest songs 
you ever heard. Turn to John, 12th chapter and 26th verse: "If 
any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall 
also my servant be; if any man serve me, him will my Father honor." 
I want to call your attention to this: "Where I am, there shall also 
my servants be." They shall be with him. We have it clearly estab- 
lished. Will you turn to the 7th chapter of Revelation, 9th and 10th 
verses. "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no 
man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, 
saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb." 

There are redeemed saints around the throne. You may say: 
"Well, what good does that do me? That will not help me. What 
I want to know is, have I an interest in that land?" Well, I cannot 
speak for the rest of you ; but I can say that it is the privilege of 
every one in this audience to know that their names may be written 
in heaven, if they care to have them there. When the seventy went 
out to preach, in every town they went to there was a great revival. 
People are prejudiced against revivals in these days; but they are as 
old as the world. When these men went out, two by two, and pro- 
claimed the gospel, their cry was, "Repent, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand;" and the seventy returned elated with their won- 
derful success. They thought all they had to do was to speak, and 
the whole world would be moved. But they were told: "Rejoice 
not at your success in these cities; rejoice that your names are writ- 
ten in heaven." It is a grand thing for a man or woman to know 
that his or her name is w. itten in heaven. Young lady, do you know to- 
day that your name is written there? Young man, do you know that 
your name is written in heaven? Do you think that Christ would 
have told these men to rejoice, if he had not known that their names 
were written there? Some persons say that you cannot be sure; but 
that is one of the greatest delusions of the devil. If we cannot be 



HEAVEN. 269 

certain of being saved, then we cannot preach salvation. There is 
not one passage of Scripture that gives us reason to doubt our own 
salvation. "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" in him I believe. I 
know that I have passed in this world from death to life; I know, I 
know, I know — that is the way the Scripture speaks in regard to our 
salvation. And so, if you do not know to-day that your name is 
written in heaven; if no spirit bears witness with your spirit that 
your name is written in heaven, oh do not sleep to-night until you 
do know it! It is the privilege of every man and woman in this 
house to know it, if he will. 

Would you just turn to a few passages in the scriptures. Turn 
back to the prophecy of Daniel a moment, the 12th chapter and 1st 
verse: "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince 
which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a 
time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to 
that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every 
one that shall be found within the book." Every one that shall be 
found written — not in the church-book; a good many have got their 
names written on some church record that have not got them written 
in the book of life; but every one whose name is found written in 
the book of life shall be delivered. Then would you turn a moment 
to Paul's epistle to the Philippians, 4th chapter, 3d verse: "And I 
entreat thee also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which labored 
with me in the gospel, with Clement, also, and with my other fellow- 
laborers whose names are in the book of life." Why, it is not only 
they themselves who know it, but Paul seemed to know their names 
are there. He sent them greeting, " whose names are in the book 
of life." My dear friend, is your name there? It seems to me it is 
a very sweet thought to think we can have our names there and know 
it; that we can send our names on ahead of us, and know it is writ- 
ten in the book of life. 

I had a friend coming back from Europe, some time ago, and she 
came down with some other Americans from London to Liverpool. 
On the train down they were talking about the hotel they would 
stop at. They had got to stay there a day or two before the boat 
sailed; and so they all concluded to go to the Northwestern Hotel; 
but when they reached Liverpool, they found that the hotel was com- 
pletely filled, and had been full for days. Every room was taken, 
and the party started to go out, but this lady did not go with them; 
and they asked her, "Why, are you not coming?" "No," said she; 
"I am going to stay here." "But how? The hotel is full." "Oh," 
said she, "I have got a room." "How did you get it?" "I tele- 
graphed on a few days ago for one." Yes; she had alone taken 
pains to telegraph her name on ahead, and had thus secured her 
room. That is just what God wants you to do. Send your name 
on ahead. Have your mansion ready for you when you come to die. 



270 



HEAVEN. 



Don't go on neglecting this great question; don't neglect your soul's 
sal vat' on; don't neglect your home beyond the grave. 

You can have your name written in the book of life to-day; and 
have the crown and robe all ready for you, when your spirit leaves 
your body. You can secure an interest in the kingdom of God this 
very day, if you will only seek it. But there is another passage T 
want to call your attention to in regard to this very point of having 
your names put in the book of life. Now turn to Revelation, 13th 
chapter, 8th verse: "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship 
him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." Ah, there is a good deal 
in scripture about our names being written in the book of life. 
Turn again to Revelation 20: 12: "And I saw the dead, small and 
great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another 
book was opened which is the book of life; and the dead were judged 
out of those things which were written in the books, according to 
their works." Then in the last chapter but one, and the last verse: 
"And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, nei- 
ther whatsoever worketh abomination, nor maketh a lie, but they 
which are written in the Lamb's book of life." Not a soul shall enter 
in through the pearly gates of that city whose names are not written 
in the book of life. It is a very important thing that we have our 
names written there; and then, I think the next important thing 
after our names are written in the book of life is, to have our chil- 
dren's there. We ought to be careful and see that the names of the 
children whom God has given us are written there. 

I want to speak here for a few minutes about our children; for the 
promises are not only to us, butto our children. I pity those fathers 
and mothers who don't believe in the conversion of their little chil- 
dren. I pity the fathers and mothers who are not laboring to bring 
their children to Christ, and have their names written in the book of 
life. I heard of a mother dying a few years ago of consumption; 
and when the hour came for her departure, she asked that her chil- 
dren be brought in, and the oldest child was brought to her bedside. 
The mother put her dying hand on his head, smoothed his hair, and 
gave him her dying blessing; and the next child was brought in, and 
the next, and the next, and to each she gave a message of love and 
hope. And at last the little infant was brought in; and she hugged 
it to her bosom and kissed it, and hugged it again and again until, 
as they went to take the littie child from her mother, as they saw it 
was exciting her and hastening her death, she looked up into her 
husband's face and said: "I charge you to bring all these children 
home with you." And so God charges us parents to bring our chil- 
dren home with us. He don't want one left out, but wants every 
one written in the book of life. And they can be written there to- 
day if we only seek; and if that is uppermost in the minds of 



HEAVEN. 271 

God's people, to have them there, they will be brou^Lu in. What a 
blessed revival we will have, if the fathers and mothers will only- 
wake up and see that they are brought in! If we want to shine for- 
ever in the kingdom of God, then we must bring them in. But the 
trouble is, we want to shine down here in this fleeting world. How 
ambitious the fathers and the mothers are that their children shall 
just shine here for a little while; and the best and final interest of 
their soul is overlooked and forgotten. 

I heard of a man that was dying some time ago, a man of great 
wealth; and when the doctor told him he could not live, the lawyer 
was sent for to make out his will. And the dying man's little girl, 
only about four years old, did not understand what death meant; and 
when the mother told her that her papa was going way, the little 
child went to the bedside and looked into her father's eyes and 
asked; u Papa, have you got a home in that land that you are going- 
to?" And the question sunk down deep into his soul. He had spent 
all his time and all his energy in the accumulation of great wealth. 
He had a grand home, and had now got to leave it; and how that 
question came home to him. 

Dear friends, let me ask you the question to-day, have you got a home 
beyond the grave? Can you say your name is written in the Lamb's, 
book of life? Can you rejoice as only Christ's disciples rejoice, be- 
cause your name is there? If you cannot, then don't let the sun go 
down until the great question of eternity is settled. Let the news, 
flash over the wires of heaven, up to the throne of God, that you 
want your name there: "Oh, let my name be written in the Book of 
Life!" And then when your name is called, and there is a vqice 
heard, "Come up hither!" you will go with joy and gladness to meet 
your Lord and Savior. You remember how it was with that dying 
soldier — you have undoubtedly seen it, it has been in print so often — 
who, lying on his cot, was heard to say, "Here! here! here!" and 
they went to him and asked him what he wanted. "Oh," said he, 
"they are calling the roll of heaven, and I am answering to my 
name;" and in a few minutes he faintly whispered it again, and was 
gone. That great roll is being called; and it will be a very impor- 
tant thing, more important than anything else when the hour comes, 
that our names be written in the book of life; for God says, except 
it is written in the book of life, we shall not enter that city. The 
gates will be closed igainst us; no one will enter the kingdom of 
God except those whose names are written in the book of life. So, 
my friends, let us be wise. Let us see that our names are there; 
and then let us go to work, and see if we cannot bring our children 
to Christ. I know a mother in this audience, to-day, who has got a 
family of children; and a few days ago she got stirred up, and 
thought she would go to her children and talk to them personally 
about Christ. She commenced only ten days ago, and what is the 



272 HEAVEN". 

result? A son and two daughters — all that she has got — have been 
brought to Christ; and perhaps there is not a happier woman in New 
York to-day, because she has got the names of her family all written 
in the book of life. She knows that they are to be an unbroken cir- 
cle in eternal life. Fathers and mothers, let us be wise unto eternity, 
and bring our children into the kingdom with us. But you may say, 
What has this to do with heaven? You cannot talk about heaven, 
but the children must be spoke of, "For of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." They have been going up there for these 6000 years. 
Their little spirits are up yonder with the Shepherd; and he will 
take better care of them than we can. It seems as if it ought to 
make heaven very dear to us. 

I never talk about children and heaven, but what the story of two 
fathers comes right home to me. One lived out in the Western 
country, on the banks of the Mississippi river. The world calls him 
rich; but how poor he is, or, how poor he was! Thank God! he is 
rich now. One day his oldest son was brought home to him un- 
conscious; a terrible accident had happened, and the family physi- 
cian w T as hurriedly called in. As he came in, the father said: "Doc- 
tor, do you think my son will recover?" "No," said the doctor; he 
is dying, and cannot recover." "Well," says the father, "only bring 
him to, can't you, that we may tell him? I don't want him to die 
without knowing that he is dying." The doctor said he would try, 
but that the boy was fast dying. After awhile the boy did become 
conscious for a moment, and the father cried: "My boy, the doctor 
tells me you are dying, and cannot live. I could not let you die 
without letting you know it." The young man looked up to his 
father, and said: " Father, do you tell me I am going to die right 
away?" "Yes, my boy," said the agonized father; "you will be 
gone in a little while." " Oh, father, won't you pray for my lost 
soul?" Said the speechless father, " I cannot pray, my son." The 
boy grew unconscious, and after a little while was gone; and the 
father said when he buried that boy, that if he could have called him 
back by prayer, he would have given all he was worth. He had been 
with that boy all those years, and had never prayed once for him. 
Am I talking to a prayerless father and mother, to-day? Gather your 
children around you and show them the way to the kingdon of God. 
Train them to go where Christ reigns in triumph, that they may be 
with you. 

The other father was a contrast. I don't know but he may be in 
this audience this evening. His son had been dangerously ill, and 
when he came home one day he found his wife greatly troubled. 
She told him there had been a great change since morning, and she 
thought their boy was dying. "I wish," said she, "that you would 
go in and tell him of his condition, for I cannot bear to; and he 
ought to know it if he is dying." The father went in, went up to 



HEAVEN. 273 

his son's bedside, placed his hand on the boy's pale forehead, and 
saw the cold, damp sweat of night was gathering, and he saw in a 
little while the boy would be gone; and he said, "My son, do you 
know you are dying?" And the young man said, "No; am I dy- 
ing?" "Yes, my son," "Will I die to-day?" "Yes, my boy; you 
cannot live until night." And the boy looked surprised, and yet 
seemed to be glad, and said: "Well, father, I will be with Jesus, 
to-night, won't I?" "Yes, my boy; you will stand to-night with 
the Savior," and the father turned away to conceal his tears. And 
the boy saw the tears, and said: "Father, don't you weep for me; 
when I go to heaven, I will go right straight to Jesus, and tell him 
that ever since I can remember, you have tried to lead me to him." 
God has given me two little children; and if I know my heart to- 
day, I would rather have such testimony as this go home to my 
Father, through my children, than to have the world rolled at my 
feet. I would rather have them come to my grave and drop a tear 
over it, and say: "When my father lived, he was more anxious for 
my eternal salvation than he was for my temporal good," than I would 
to have all the power this world can bestow. A few weeks ago, 
when my boy was sick, and I didn't know but that it would result fa- 
tally, I took my place by the side of his bed, and placed my hand on 
his forehead, and said: "Willie, suppose you should be really sick" 
— I didn't want to have him think he was likely to die — "and you 
should be taken away, do you think you would be afraid of death?" 
and a tear trickled down his cheek, as he said: "No, papa. Last 
summer I was awful afraid of death; but Jesus has taken it all 
away now. If I die, I should go to him; and he would give me 
everything I wanted." Ah! how sweet it was to think the little 
fellow was not afraid of death. It seems to me, we ought to teach 
our children so that they will hail with joy the time that they can go 
to meet Jesus, their blessed Savior. Oh, may the Spirit of the Lord 
God come upon this assembly to-night, and may we know that our 
names are written in the kingdom of heaven, and then see that the 
children whom God has given us are written in the book of life. 



18 



HEAVENLY TREASURES. 

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and 
•where thieves break through and steal ; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where 
neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.''" 
Matthew 6: 19, k 20. 

Last night, you remember, our subject was heaven, and we were 
trying to find out who were there; and I want to take the subject 
right up where I left off. And I call your attention to the 6th chap- 
ter of Matthew and 19th verse, where you will find these words: 
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but 
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." 
Now, if we are living as the Lord would have us live, our treasures 
are laid up in heaven, and not laid up on the earth; and I think we 
would be saved from a great many painful hours, and a great deal of 
trouble, if we would just obey that portion of scripture, and lay up 
our treasures in heaven, and not upon the earth. It is just as much a 
command that we lay up our treasures in heaven, and not upon 
the earth, as it is that we shall not steal. God tells us plainly: "Lay 
not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust doth not cor- 
rupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." It is a 
command. 

Now, it don't take long to tell where a man's treasure is; it don't 
take long to find out where a man's heart is. You talk with a man five 
minutes, and if he has got his heart upon any one object, you can 
find it out, if that is your aim. And now, if you want to find out 
where a man's treasure is, it won't take you long to find that out 
either; For you know that the Bible tells us: "Where your treasure 
is, there shall your heart be also." And the reason we have so many 
earthly-minded people, and so few people of heavenly minds is, be- 
cause the many have their whole hearts set upon earthly pleasures 
and objects, and the few have their treasures laid up in heaven. If 
your treasure is here, you will all the time be disappointed and in 
trouble and trial, when the Lord has told you plainly to lay up your 
treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, nor thieves 
break through and steal. Now, you talk with a man a few minutes, 
and you soon find out where his heart is. Talk about money; and if 
he loves money, and is making money and longing for more, how 
274 



HEAVENLY TREASURES. 275 

his eye" will light up; and if he is fond of politics, and you refer 
to that, his whole face kindles up, for you have touched his heart and 
the subject dearest to him. If it is pleasure, or if it is passion, speak 
about it and he is interested at once. But the child of God, who has 
got his treasures up yonder, when you talk about heaven you will see 
his heart is there; and if a man's heart is in heaven, it is not an ef- 
fort for him to talk about it at all. He cannot help it. x\nd if our 
affections are set on things above and not on this earth, it will be easy 
for us to live for God. Now here is the command: "Lay not up 
for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up your treasures in 
heaven." 

Now, my friends, ask yourselves the question, Where is your 
treasure? Or, in other words, Where is your heart? When you 
find out that, then you will find out where your treasure is. In the 
Mth chapter of Hebrews, 13th verse, are these words: "These all 
died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them 
afar off, and were persuaded to them, and embraced them, and con- 
fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they 
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." Then 
in the 10th verse of that same chapter, speaking of Abraham, it says: 
" For he looked for a city which hath foundations; whose builder and 
maker is God." The moment Abraham caught sight of that city, he 
proclaimed himself a pilgrim and a stranger. The well-watered 
plains of Sodom had no temptation for him. He declared plainly 
that he saw another country — a better country. He had turned his 
heart from this fleeting world, and Sodom with all its temptations 
didn't tempt him. He had got something better. He had his eye 
fixed upon a city that should endure when Sodom should have been 
swept away, and he had got his eye fixed upon that city to lay up 
treasure there. How poor a man is, no matter how much he has 
got laid up in this world, if he has not got his treasure laid up in 
heaven! A couple of friends of mine in the war called upon one of 
our great Illinois farmers to get him to give some money for the 
soldiers, and during their stay there he took them upon the cupola, 
of his house, and told them to look over yonder, just as far as their 
eye could reach, over that beautiful rolling prairie, and they said, 
"That is very nice;" and it was all his. Then he took them up 
another cupola and said: "Look at that farm, and that, and that;" 
and these were farms all stocked, aud improved and fenced; and 
they said, "That is very nice," and then he showed them horses, 
cattle, and sheep-yards, and told them, " That is all mine." He 
showed them the town where he lived, which had been named for 
him, a great hall and building lots, and those were all his; and, said 
he, " I came out West a poor boy, without a farthing, and I am 
worth all this." But when he got through my friend said: "How 
much have you got up yonder?" and the old man's countenance fell, 



276 HEAVENLY TREASURES. 

for he knew very well what that meant. "What have you got there 
in the other world?" "Well,' 1 he says, "I have not got anything 
there." "Why," says my friend, "what a mistake! A man of your 
intelligence and forethought and judgment, to amass all this wealth; 
and now, drawing to your grave, you will have to leave it all. You 
cannot take a farthing with you; but you must die beggared and a 
pauper;" and the tears rolled down his cheeks as he said, "It does 
look foolish." But a few months after he died, as he had lived, and 
his property passed to others. And we see people here in New 
York, accumulating money as if it is all there is to live for, and leave 
it, many of them to their children, to make the way down to hell easy 
for those children. One generation accumulates wealth for the next 
to squander it, and to ruin soul and b dy. 

A great many people are wondering why they don't grow in grace; 
why they don't have more spiritual power. The question is very 
easily answered. You have got your treasure down here. It is not 
necessary for a man to have money to have his treasure down here. 
He may have his heart on pleasure; he may make an idol of his 
children; and that is the reason that they don't grow in grace. If 
we would only just be wise and do as God tells us, we would mount 
up, as it were, on wings, and would get nearer to heaven every day. 
We would get heavenly-minded in our conversation, and have less 
trouble than now. And so, my friends, let us just ask ourselves to- 
day, Where is our treasure? Is it on earth, or in heaven? What 
are we doing? What is the aim of our lives? Are we just living to 
accumulate money, or to get a position in the world for our children? 
Or, are we trying to secure those treasures which we can safely lay 
up in heaven, becoming rich toward God? 

I have known men who have been up in balloons; and they have 
told me that when they want to rise higher, they just throw out 
some of the sand with which they ballast the balloon. Now, I be- 
lieve one reason why so many people are earthly-minded and have 
so little of the spirit of heaven is, that they have got too much bal- 
last, in the shape of love for earthly joys and gains; and what you 
want is to throw out some of the sand, and you will rise higher. I 
heard of a man, the other day, who said he did not know what to do 
with his money. It was a burden to him to take care of it. I could 
not help but think how quick I could tell him what to do with it. I 
could tell him where to invest it, where it would bring an eternal 
profit. I hope to live to see the day when men will be an anxious 
to make investments for the Lord as for themselves; and a man 
won't then be putting so much money in railroad shares, and so much 
in banking stocks, and so much in a mine in the mountain; but he 
will put it in good security, where it will bring good returns for the 
Lord. That is the kind of investment I think we ought to live for. 
A friend of mine said that he was in Liverpool, some time ago, and 



HEAVENLY TREASURES. 277 

there was a vessel coming into the harbor. It sailed right up the 
Mersey under full sail; and a little while after another vessel came 
in towed by a tug, and sunken to the level of the water. He won- 
dered it did not sink; and he went down to the water's edge and 
saw that they got it into the harbor with a great deal of difficulty, 
and he inquired and found that it was loaded with lumber. It had 
such material on board that it could not sink, and it had sprung 
a-leak and had got water-logged. My friends, I think there are a 
good many of God's people that have got water-logged; and it takes 
all the strength of the church to look after those Christians that are 
water-logged, and so water-logged that they cannot go forth and do 
good to others — help the unfortunate, and lift up the poor drunkard, 
— because they don't know whether they are saved themselves. The 
fact is they are off with the world, mingling with the world; acting, 
speaking, as though in the world, and they don't know whether they 
are saved themselves. 

I believe, if we are God's people, we must be separate from the 
world. I think before this world is ever reformed, the people of 
God must be set apart from the world. There never will' be a true 
reformation in the world until God's people are separate, until we 
are liberated here below. Who would want to live in the sinful 
world? These smoking, chewing, drinking, horse-racing, dancing, 
card-playing Christians never will reform this world. We have got 
to come out and be separate from the world, and have our hearts set on 
things above, and not so much on the things of this earth. If we 
are willing to live the lives of Christians, we have got to live them, 
not as if we were of the world. Suppose that when we had sent 
our brothers and fathers and sons away to fight the battles of the 
war, they had chosen, after they had got away off down South hun- 
dreds of miles from home, they had chosen to remain there; 
and had chosen to leave forever the wives and sisters and daughters 
they had left behind in the North, and to make homes for them- 
selves there among the enemy. But, instead of that, were they not 
always anxious that the war should be over, and looking eagerly for- 
ward to the time when they should come back home? That is the way 
with Christians in this world. We are strangers and pilgrims here, 
in this world. Itjsjiot home to us. We are citizens of another and 
a finer country. A man was asked the other day, "Well, how is the 
world getting on?" He replied: "I do not know. I haven't been 
in the world for several years." He was living in another country, 
taken out of the old place and transplanted into the new. If things 
do not come to satisfy us down here, let us not be complaining. 
Let us remember that we are on a pilgrimage, that we are citizens 
of another country, and that we are to have all we want when we 
get home. 1 was on board the train from Chicago to Cairo one day, 
and there were two ladies sitting in the seat behind me who were 



278 HEAVENLY TREASURES. 

talking together, and I could not help hearing the conversation. I 
learned that they were strangers when they started from Chicago, 
but on the way, before they came to Cairo, they got quite well ac- 
quainted. One was going to New Orleans, and one was going to 
Cairo. Before they got to Cairo, the Cairo lady said to the New 
Orleans lady: "I wish you would get off at Cairo. I enjoy your 
company, and I would like very much to have you spend a few days 
at my home." The New Orleans lady said: "I would like to do so; 
but I have packed all my things in my trunk, and they have all gone 
on ahead to New Orleans. So I have not any clothes with me good 
enough to visit and go into society in. I have nothing except what 
I have on;" and she added, "and you know this dress is good 
enough to travel in." That is what I think of the journey of this 
world. A very little is good enough for us to travel in. We are all trav- 
elers, and this is good enough for traveling. We have raiment and 
mansions up there, waiting for us. Let us have our hearts and affec- 
tions set on things above, and not on things on the earth. In He- 
brews, 4th chapter and 9th verse, it says, "There remaineth therefore 
a rest for the people of God." Not on earth; it does not say on 
earth. 

There is another great mistake that a good many people are mak- 
ing at the present time. They have an idea that the church is 
a place of rest. Instead of going there to work for God, they go 
there to rest. "There remaineth a rest for the people of God." We 
will rest when we go home. We will have all eternity to rest in. 
We do not want to talk about rest here. I hope the time will come, 
and I believe it will come, when they will ask this question of all 
who are candidates for membership in the church: "What work do 
you expect to do?" And if they are going into the church to rest, 
they will be told that we have enough of such members now; and 
if we could only get them out, and get some others in who will go 
to work in earnest, it would be a good thing for all. We should un- 
derstand that we come into the church to work. All that seems to 
constitute a Christian in these days is to unite with the church; and 
then, after they have joined it, every one in the church must wait on 
them — the minister, the laymen, all the members, must go and call 
on them, aud if they do not do this, they go to some other church; 
and the quicker they do it the better. "There remaineth a rest for 
the people of God." The idea of our talking about rest here, where 
Christ has been cast out, where they have taken the life of God's 
own Son. Why should we want to stay in the enemy's country at 
rest and peace? As long as it is the enemy's country, let us not 
dream of rest. We will rest by and by, when Jesus comes. Let us 
not talk about rest now. I heard of a man, the other day, that got 
tired and discouraged and homesick. He wanted to go home. He 
did not see his work blessed at it used to be, and one night as he 



HEAVENLY TREASURES. 279 

went to bed he wished himself dead; and going to sleep in that state 
of mind, it was not unnatural for him to dream the dream that he 
did. He dreamed that he died and was taken away to the eternal 
city. When he first got there, as he walked up and down the golden 
streets of heaven, looking upon the celestial city, he met two friends 
whom he had known on earth. All at once, as they walked together, 
they noticed that every one was looking in a certain direction. He 
looked and saw some one coming up the street in a golden chariot. 
He saw that he looked different from the rest of the redeemed who 
had come there from earth; and as he came nearer, he saw that it 
was the blessed Lord and Savior. When the chariot came sweeping 
up to where they were, the Savior got out of the chariot and asked 
his companions to get into the chariot, and then asked him to walk 
with him. The Savior then took him to the battlements of heaven, 
and said, "What do you see?" He answered, "I see the dark world 
that I have just come from." "What else?" he was then asked. 
He looked further and replied, " I think I see men going over into 
the bottomless pit." "What else?" "I hear the wail coming up 
from these," he said. The Savior asked: " Will you stay here and 
enjoy these mansions with me, or will you go back to earth and tell 
those poor erring mortals about me?" Here he awoke from his sleep, 
and he said he has never since wished himself dead. He wants to 
live as long as he can, to proclaim to the last the Savior's life and 
death to a lost world. 

We have not long to work. Let us work without ceasing. Work, 
work, work! The first word that Paul ever heard from the Son of 
God was, "That I must be about my Father's business." Shall the 
servant be above his master? Shall we become careless of our Mas- 
ter's work down here? Oh, let us begin to-night, and let it be the 
work of each one here this very week to bring some souls to Christ. 
A young man who lay dying was heard by his watching mother to 
moan the words, " Lost, lost, lost!" She went to him and said: 
" Why, my son, why do you say, Lost, lost, lost? It is not possible 
that you have lost your hope in Christ?" "No, mother; not that." 
" Then what do you mean by those words — lost, lost?" "Mother, I 
was thinking how I have lost my life; how I have wasted my twen- 
ty-four years. I have done nothing; I have lost a life!" And the 
young man died regretting that he had lost a lifetime, which was 
given him in which to work for Christ Jesus. If God should sum- 
mon us to-day, would we be ready to go to our account? Would 
we not have to say our life had been a failure, because we had not 
done the work that he had for us to do? We will rest, by and by. 
The wicked shall cease from troubling, by and by. The weary shall 
be at rest, by and by. We will not talk about rest here. We shall 
have enough, we shall have all eternity for rest. 

I want to call your attention next to the fact that our reward is in 



280 HEAVENLY TREASURES. 

heaven, and not here. God's people make the great mistake of look- 
ing for a reward down here. They are still looking for a reward 
down here. Let us remember that the reward is beyond. I have 
noticed that that is the case with almost every one of God's people — 
they look for reward down here. God does not propose to reward 
his children here. He is to reward them up yonder. We are to 
work here. When we are done he will say: "Well done, good and 
faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." You will 
then have a seat at his right hand. The reward will be great, he 
says. If God calls the reward great, what kind of a reward will it 
be? If the great God says so, won't it be a wonderful reward? In- 
stead of looking for reward and honor here, let us look beyond for 
it. See what Paul says to Timothy, "For there will be for me a 
crown." He did not look for his crown here. 

When I read the life of Paul, it makes me ashamed of the Chris- 
tianity of the present day. Talk about what we have suffered! Talk 
about what we have done! I think it would do every member of 
the church good to spend six months reading the life of Paul, and to 
see what he had to go through. He had been beaten four times, and 
received thirty-nine stripes upon the bare back. If one of us should 
get even one stripe now, how many volumes would be written on 
the martyrdom? What a whine there would be! It was nothing 
for Paul to be beaten with thirty-nine stripes. Did any one say to 
Paul: "You have been beaten already four times before, and now 
they are going to bring that scourge upon your back as many times 
again perhaps; had you not better go off down to Europe, and rest 
for six months until this persecution dies out?" The appeal would 
pass him by unheeded. " I have but one aim, one thing to hope for. 
I press toward the mark of my high calling in Christ Jesus." These 
earthly afflictions, what were they? He never complained of them. 
Instead of giving up his opinions and his hope, he was willing to 
stand his stripes and his miseries, again and asrain. And it was no 
trifling matter, these beatings he received. Yet he received them 
all, and would not deny the faith that the mercy and power of God 
had wrought in him. If you allow me the expression, the devil had 
his match when he got hold of Paul. Not all he could do would 
give him the upper hand of Paul, and separate him from the love of 
God. He had his reward in view; and he always, scorning what 
the world could do to him, pressed toward that reward. He knew 
that all his sufferings here would be wiped away, and joy and peace 
be his when he wore the crown for which he had so bravely fought. 
And how many are working for these crowns at the present day? 
How much would they suffer now for a like reward that awaited 
this mighty warrior? His enemies one time took him out and stoned 
him like the martyr Stephen. Think of the torment he experienced,, 
the pain that he must have suffered, as these stones were hurled at 



HEAVENLY TREASURES. 281 

him. So great was the anger of those who were thus around him 
that they left him for dead, when they got through with him. See 
his head all swollen up; see the bruises upon his body and his limbs; 
see the ugly scars and the gaping wounds that he carried. He was 
hardly brought to life again; and for a long time thereafter you could 
see him with his injured head and black eye on the corners of the 
streets, and yet not frightened by any means, but preaching the 

glorious gospel of his God and master Jesus Christ. He went to 
orinth, was not afraid, but preached there for eighteen months; and 
in all his ministrations, and in all this, he had to rely upon himself. 
He had no influential committee to meet him on his arrival at the 
station, and conduct him to a fine hotel, and make all arrangements 
about his expenses. There was no station in those days; when he 
did arrive, he came unannounced and on foot. And instead of a 
splendid hotel to go to, his first care was to go himself, walk around 
all the streets and find cheap lodgings, in some alley, where he could 
go after he had left off preaching for the day to made tents, to which 
trade he had been brought up. And then, after all his preaching, 
and all his labors, what reward did he receive? Well, there was a 
sort of a committee, and they said they would pay him oif. Did 
they give him some testimonial and a large sum in money then? 
What they did do instead of presenting him with, say, a thousand 
dollars in gold. This committee that I speak of took him down to a 
cross street and gave him thirty-nine stripes. That is the way they 
paid him off. That was the way they treated this mighty fighter, a 
preacher that turned the world upside down. 

Talk about Alexander making the World tremble at the tread of 
his armies! Talk about Napoleon shaking the world to its centre^ 
when the powers knew he had gathered his army round about him* 
Why these have all passed away; but the words of Paul, of the de- 
spised tent-maker, make the world tremble even to this day. He- 
talks about being in peril among robbers. Well, what did the rob- 
bers find on him? No money, no jewelry — nothing. What treas- 
ures he had, he had placed them above their reach, he had but them 
in heaven, where thieves do not break through or steal. The rob- 
bers got nothing from him, though he was richer than any man is at 
the present day. Not a man who has lived since Paul is richer than 
he was. Xhree times, again he says, he suffered ship wreck; also a 
day and a night he was in the deep. He had been subjected to 
perils by water, to perils of robbers, to perils brought about by his 
own countrymen. Besides these, he experienced perils of the wilder- 
ness; perils among false brethren — ah! that must have been the 
hardest. lie was weary, he was in pain; but none of these things 
meved him. Thank God the apostle was a warrior; and would to 
God the church had a thousand like him at the present day. Noth- 
ing was able to battle him down. Not even the newspaper of the 



282 HEAVENLY TREASURES. 

day, if they had one, pitching- into him every day, would have caused 
him a moment's thought. It might have called him a poor, deluded 
man, might have said to him, u 0h, you poor fool." For none of 
these things did he care. He looked above and beyond them. He 
knew there was a glorious reward awaiting him. 

And so the mighty warrior went on to fight for his Master. 
B .' at last he had to flee; and to escape, he was let down the walls 
in a basket. He goes to fight elsewhere. Driven out of one place, 
he does not despair; and that is the spirit that we want to-day. He 
was always willing to receive the stripes and the torments, and to 
suffer everything the world could heap upon him for the cause of 
Christ. His enemies again gave him thirty-nine stripes. Well, he 
was used to it. His back had not perhaps got well before he re- 
ceived this punishment. After they got through with him, they cast 
him and Silas into prison. No sooner had they got in, instead of 
being frightened at what they had received, they began to worship 
the God for whom they had suffered. Paul says to §ilas: "Come, 
Silas, let us praise God and have prayers." And they opened their 
worship by singing, perhaps, the 46th Psalm. After that they had 
prayers, and called upon God for his protection. And as soon as 
they had said " Amen," their God responded to their cries of help, 
and the whole prison shook, and there was a great commotion. Yes, 
that was a queer place to sir g praises in — a prison ; and it was 
just after he had received the stripes. Why, I dare say if Mr. Sankey 
should have only one stripe upon his naked back, he would not feel 
much like singing! But this man had received thirty-nine. He 
was as much at home with his God in prison, as he was out of it. 
He could praise him as well behind bolts and bars as he could in the 
synagogue. He knew what his reward would be. He knew that 
the grave would be his immediate reward; but he had faith in the 
great hereafter; he had a crown and a reward that would not pass 
away. Yes, do you think that God would let him suffer like that 
without rewarding him? If we suffer persecution for Christ's sake, 
great will be our reward. Paul's sufferings were the cause of the 
conversion of the Philippian jailor. I suppose he was the first con- 
vert in Europe. 

Look at him again in Rome. The time had come for his depar- 
ture; Nero had signed the order for his execution, and he is being 
taken out to be beheaded. Ask him now, at this moment, when 
death is but a little way off, if he is sorry that he has suffered for 
the Son of God. Ask him if he would like to recant to save his head. 
I can imagine how he would look if you should ask him such a ques- 
tion as that. They are going to take him two miles out of the city 
to the place of execution. He walks with a steady, unfaltering step. 
He wavers not, nor looks aside. His gaze is fixed upon the reward 
of his hiofh calling in Christ Jesus. And he writes to his friend 



HEAVENLY TREASURES. 283 

Timothy, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown." You could 
not shake him in his faith. Thank God, at this dread moment, he 
kept his word with Jesus. He had never preached any false doc- 
trine. He had only preached Christ crucified, and had manfully 
fought under his banner like a faithful soldier, to this, the end of his 
life. "Good-by," you can imagine him saying to Timothy; "Hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown, and I am going to win it." As he 
walked through the streets of Rome, I tell you Rome never had such 
a conqueror. Not all her mighty men of war, nor all her generals 
and statesmen and orators, had risen to the supreme height that Paul 
had reached at this moment. He was going to receive a prize that 
would ecliuse all the trophies of war, and wit, and learning. But at 
last he approaches the fatal spot. He is placed in the position that 
he had to take; the executioner makes him ready, and at the given 
signal the blow descends, his head comes off, and his spirit is lifted 
into the golden chariot, and is borne to the pearly gates of heaven. 
As he approaches the celestial portals, the battlements of heaven are 
crowded with the saints that Paul by his preaching had sent before 
him. Ah! how they welcome him. He is borne on toward the great 
white throne to receive his reward. The bells of heaven are set 
a-ringing, and hosannas are chanted by the choir of paradise. He 
comes near the throne, and he hears the great voice saying: "Well 
done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
and the saints now gather around him, and greet,. and bear witness 
for him to the Master he had so faithfully served. One would say: 
"That sermon that you preached to the Galatians wrought a change 
of heart in me, and I have been chosen to take my place among the 
elect." Another would say, "That lecture that you delivered at 
Thessalonica converted me." Another: "Paul, that appeal that 
you made at Corinth touched my wicked soul; I began to worship 
the Jesus whom you preached, and here I am among the angels." 
Oh, what a reward was that. Was it not worth all the cares, troubles, 
anxieties, sufferings, torments, and death he had gone through? Men 
murmur at the little crosses they have to endure here; but they for- 
get that if they be faithful the Lord will reward them by-and-by. 

One more thought before I close. What is it that occasions so 
much joy in heaven? Suppose some great discovery had been made 
in this country; it would throw the whole nation into excitement. 
If it should turn out that some great mines had been discovered, 
whose riches had never been equaled; that it rewarded all those that 
went to it with an independent fortune in a few months, what in- 
tense excitement would be' created all through the land! Yet this 
would not be noticed in heaven. What would, then, create joy in 
that place? Why, if that little girl down there would only give her 
heart to Jesus to-day, all heaven would sing and shout. "There is 
joy," it is written, "over one sinner that repenteth." The idea that 



284 HEAVENLY TKEASURES. 

that little boy or girl could cause joy in heaven, and create an ex- 
citement there! For every sinner that repents there is joy in heaven. 
Just look at the 15th chapter of Luke: "When he found the sheep, 
he called his friends in." I have tried to make out what friends 
are there referred to. Were they the angels? No; I don't think 
they were the angels. I can imagine, and I think the idea is a le- 
gitimate one, that these friends are the redeemed ones that knew us, 
and loved us, and prayed for us on earth. These are the people 
whose names Christ is writing in the book of life. It might be that 
an entry would be made that down at the Hippodrome, on March 
10, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, these redeemed ones first turned 
their hearts to me. Some beloved mother is up there, it may be, and 
is looking down on her child, and is praying that her child may have 
a clean heart and seek the Lord. Perhaps some little, loving child 
is looking over the battlements to see its father or mother here re- 
pent and give their souls to God. When I was in the great Exhibi- 
tion Building in Dublin, I said that perhaps a mother was praying 
near the Throne for a certain young lady in the audience, and 
asked her if she would not come to Jesus. A short time afterward 
1 received the following letter: "Dear Sir, on Wednesday, when you 
were speaking of heaven, you said that ' it might be that at this mo- 
ment a mother was looking down from paradise and praying for the sal- 
vation of her child who is here.' You apparently looked at the spot 
where my child was seated. My heart said, ' That is my child, and 
that is her mother.' Tears sprang to my eyes, and I bowed my head 
and prayed that the Lord would show his way to my darling child. 
'Lord, save my child,' I cried. I was then anxious to the close of the 
meeting. When I reached her she was bathed in tears, and she 
arose and put her arms around my neck and kissed me; and on the 
way to the inquiry-room she told me that it had been the same re- 
mark about a mother looking down from heaven that had found its 
way to her heart." I remember that time, when a beautiful young 
lady was led to the inquiry-room, leaning on the arm of her father. 
"What can I do to be saved?" she said. And afterward she became 
a zealous worker for the Lord. The letter was written by her 
father, who is a clergymen. 

Shall these lectures close without one deciding to make heaven 
his home? Will there be no young man start for heaven to-day — 
no person, no father, no mother, that will repent and turn to God? 
I pray that many will accept salvation. Shall we not all pray that 
he will save every soul in this assembly-? Would it be asking too 
much? Let us who are saved pray that God will rescue every lost 
soul here; and as we pray let us bow the head and lift up our hearts 
— and may Christ the God hear us, and hearing savel 



LOVE OF GOD. 

"And the God of love and peace shall be with you." 11 Corinthians 13: 11. 

We have for our subject this evening, " Love." I have often 
thought I wouldn't have but one text; if I thought I could only- 
make the world believe that God is love, I would only take that 
text, and go up and down the earth, trying to counteract what Satan 
has been telling them — that God is not love. He has made the 
world believe it effectually. It would not take twenty-four hours to 
make the world come to God, if you can only make them believe 
God is love. If you can really make a man believe you love him, 
you have won him; and if I could only make people really believe 
that God loves them, what a rush we would see for the kingdom of 
God! Oh, how they would rush in! But man has got a false idea 
about God, and he will not believe that he is a God of love. It is 
because he don't know him. 

Now, in Paul's farewell letter to the Corinthians, in the 13th chap- 
ter, 2d Corinthians, he says: "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be per- 
fect. Be of good comfort. Be of one mind. Live in peace, and 
the God of love" — he calls him the God of love — "and peace shall 
be with you." Then John, who was better acquainted with Christ, 
telling us about the love God has for this perishing world, writes in 
this epistle, in the evening of his life, these words: "Beloved, let us 
love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is 
born of God and knoweth God, and he that loveth not, knoweth not 
God, for God is love." We built a church in Chicago a few years 
ago, and we were so anxious to make people believe that God is love, 
that we thought if we could not preach it into their hearts, we would 
burn it in, and so right over the pulpit we had the words put in gas 
jets, " God is love," and every night we had it there. A man going 
along there one night glanced in through the door and saw the text. 
He was a poor prodigal, and he passed on, and as he walked away, 
he said to himself, " God is love? No. God is not love. God does 
not love me. He does not love me, for I am a poor, miserable sin- 
ner. If God was love, he would love me. God is not love." Yet 
there the text was, burning down into his soul. And he went on a 
little further, and turned around and came back and went into the 
meeting. He didn't hear what the sermon was, but the text got into 
his heart, and that is what we want. It is of very little account what 
men say, if God's word only gets into the heart. And he stayed 
after meeting was over, and I found him there weeping like a child; 
285 



286 LOVE OF GOD. 

but as I unfolded the Scripture, "and told him how God had loved him 
from his earliest childhood all along, the light of the gospel broke 
into his mind, and he went away rejoicing. This would be the best 
meeting to-day we have had yet, if we could only make this audience 
believe that God is love. 

Now, our brother who opened the meeting with prayer referred to 
the difference between human and divine love. That is the very 
trouble with us. We are all the time measuring God's love by ours. 
"We know that we love a man as long as he is worthy, and then we 
cast him off; but that is not divine love. There would be no hope 
for any of us if the Lord did that; and I have the idea that our 
mothers are to blame for a good deal of that, in their teaching dur- 
ing our childhood. They tell their children that the Lord loves them 
when Ihey are good children, and when they are bad children the 
Lord does not love them. That is false teaching. God loves them 
all the time, just the same as you love your children. Suppose a 
mother should come in here with a little child, and after she has been 
here awhile, the child begins to cry, and she says, "Keep still;" but the 
child keeps on crying, and so she turns him over to the police, and says, 
"Take that child; I don't want him." What would you say of 
such a mother as that? Teach a child that God loves him only so 
long as he is good, and that when he is bad, the Lord does not love 
him; and you will find that when he grows up, if he has a bad tem- 
per, he will have the idea that God hates him, he will think God 
don't love him when he has got a bad temper; and as he has a bad 
temper all the time, of course God does not love him at all, but hates 
him all the time. Now God hates sin, but he loves the sinner; and 
there is a great difference between the love of God and our love — 
all the difference in the world between the human and the divine 
love. 

Now, turn a moment to the 13th chapter of John's Gospel, 1st 
verse: "Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew 
that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto 
the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved 
them unto the end." His love is unchangeable. That night he 
knew very well what was going to happen. Judas had gone out to 
betray him. He knew it. He had already left that little band to go 
out and sell Christ. Do you tell me Christ did not love Judas? That 
very night he said to him, "Judas, what thou doest, do quickly;" 
and when Judas, meeting him in the garden, kissed him, and he 
said, " Betrayest thou thy Master with a kiss?" was it not the voice 
of love and compassion, that ought to have broken Judas' heart? He 
loved him in the very hour that he betrayed him. And that is what 
is going to make hell so terrible — that you go there with the love of 
God beneath your feet. It is not that he don't love you; but you 
despise his love. It is a terrible thing to despise love. " He loved 



LOVE OF GOD. 28? 

them unto the end." He knew very well that Peter was going to 
deny him that night, and curse and swear because he was mistaken 
for Jesus' companion. He knew all his disciples would forsake him. 
and leave him to suffer alone;' and yet he says "He loved them unto 
the end." And the sweetest words that fell from the lips of the Son 
of God were that night, when they were going to leave him. Those 
words that fell from his lips that night will live forever. How they 
will live in the hearts of God's people! We could not get on very 
well without the 14th of John, and the 15th, and 16th. It was on 
that memorable night that he uttered those blessed words; and on 
that very night that he told them how much God loved them, it 
seems as if that particular night, when he was about to be deserted 
by all, his heart was bursting with love for his flock. 

Just let us look at the 16th chapter and the 27th verse, and see 
what he says: " For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have 
loved me, and have believed that I came from God." I don't know 
but what Christ felt that there might be some of his disciples that 
would not love the Father as they loved him. I remember, for the 
first few years after I was converted, I had a good deal more love 
for Christ than for God the Father, whom I looked upon as the stern 
Judge; while T regarded Christ as the Mediator who had come be- 
tween me and that stern Judge, and had appeased his wrath. But 
when I got a little better acquainted with my Bible, those views all 
fled. After I became a father and woke up to the realization of 
what it cost God to have his Son die, I began to see that God was 
to be loved just as much as his Son was. Why, it took more love 
for God to give his Son to die than it would to die himself. You 
would a thousand times sooner die yourself in your son's place than 
have him taken away. If the executioner was about to take your 
son to the gallows, you would say: " Let me die in his stead; Let my 
son be spared." Oh, think of the love God must have had for this 
world that he gave his only begotten Son to die for it. And that 
is what I want you to understand. "The Father himself loveth you 
because ye have loved me." If a man has loved Christ, God will set 
his love upon him. Then, in the 17th Chapter, 23d verse, in that 
wonderful prayer he made that night: "I in them, and thou in me, 
that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may 
know thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved 
me." God could look down from heaven and see his Son ful- 
filling his will; and he said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased." But when it is said, "God loved us as he loved 
his own Son," it used to seem to me to be downright blasphemy, 
until I found it was in the Word of God. That was the wonderful 
prayer he made on the night of his betrayal. Is there any love in 
the world like that? Is there anything to be compared to the love 
of God? Well may Paul say, "It passeth knowledge." 



288 LOVE OF GOD. 

And then I can imagine some of you saying: "Well, he loved his 
disciples, and he loves those who serve him faithfully; but then I 
have been untrue." I may be speaking now to some backsliders; 
but if I am, I want to say to every one- here, "The Lord loves you." 
A backslider came into the inquiry-room night before last, and I was 
trying to tell him God loved him; and he would hardly believe me. 
He thought because he had not kept up his love and faithfulness to 
God, and to his own vows, that God had stopped loving him. Now, 
it says in John, 13th chapter, "He loved them unto the end;" that 
is, his love was unchangeable. You may have forgotten him, and 
betrayed him and denied him, but nevertheless he loves you; he 
loves the backslider. There is not a man here that has wandered 
from God and betrayed him, but what the Lord Jesus loves him 
and wants him to come back. Now in this 14th chapter of Hosea 
he says: "I will heal every backslider. I will love them freely." 
So the Lord tells the backsliders, " If you will only come back to me 
I will forgive you." It was thus with Peter who denied his Lord; 
the Savior forgave him, and sent him to preach his glorious gospel 
on the day of pentecost, when three thousand were won to Christ 
under one sermon of a backslider. Don't let a backslider go out of 
this hall this evening with that hard talk about the Lord. No back- 
slider can say God has left him; he may think so, but it is one of 
the devil's lies. The Lord never left a man yet. 

Just turn to the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, and the 3d verse. "He 
hath loved us," he says, "with an everlasting love." Now there is 
the difference between human and Divine love. The one is fleeting, 
the other is everlasting. There is no end of God's love. I can imag- 
ine some of you saying: "If God has loved us with an everlasting 
love, why does it say that God is angry with the sinner every day?" 
Why, dear friends, that very word "anger" in the Scriptures is one 
of the very strongest evidences and expressions of God's love. Sup- 
pose I have got two boys, and one of them goes out and lies and 
swears and steals and gets drunk. If I have no love for him I don't 
care what he does; but just because I do love him, it makes me an- 
gry to see him take that course. And it is because God loves the 
sinner that he gets angry with him. That very passage shows how 
strong God's love is. Let me tell you, dear friends, God loves you 
in all your backslidings and wanderings. You may despise his love, 
and trample it under your feet, and go down to ruin; but- it won't 
be because God don't love you. I once heard of a father who had 
a prodigal boy, and the boy had sent his mother down to the grave 
with a broken heart; and one evening the boy started out as usual 
to spend the night in drinking and gambling. His old father as he 
was leaving said: "My son, I want to ask a favor of you to-night. 
You have not spent an evening with me since your mother died; and 
ffiowl want you to spend this night at home. I have been very 



LOVE OF GOD. 289 

lonely since your mother died. Now won't you gratify your old 
father by staying at home with him?" " No," said the young man; 
" it is lonely here, and there is nothing to interest me, and I am go- 
ing out." And the old man prayed and wept, and at last he said: 
"My boy, you are just killing me, as you have killed your mother. 
These hairs are growing whiter, and you are sending me, too, to the 
grave " Still the boy would not stay, and the old man said: "If you 
are determined to go to ruin, you must go over this old body to- 
night. I cannot resist you. You are stronger than I, but if you go 
out you must go over this body." And he laid himself down before 
the door, and that son walked over the form of his father, trampled 
the love of his father under foot, and went out. 

And that is the way with sinners. You have got to trample the 
blood of God's Son under your feet if you go down to death, — to 
make light of the blood of the innocent, to make light of the won- 
derful love of God, to despise it. But whether you do or not, he 
loves you still. I can imagine some of you saying, Why does he 
not show his love to us? Why, how can it be any further shown 
than it is? You say so because you won't read his Word and find 
out how much he loves you. If you will take a concordance and run 
through the Scriptures with the one word love, you will find out how 
much he loves you; you will find out that it is all one great assur- 
ance of his love. He is continually trying to teach you this one les- 
son, and to win you to himself by a cross of love. All the burdens 
he has placed upon the sons of men have been out of pure love, to 
bring them to himself. Those who do not believe that God is love 
are under the power of the Evil One. He has blinded you, and you 
have been deceived with his lies. God's dealing has been all with 
love, love, love, — from the fall of Adam to the present hour. 
Adam's calamity brought down God's love. No sooner did the news 
reach heaven than God came down after Adam with his love. That 
voice that rang through Eden was the voice of love, hunting after 
the fallen one — "Adam, where art thou?" For all these thousand 
years that voice of love has been sounding down the ages. Out of 
his love he made a way of escape for Adam. God saved him out of 
his pity and love. 

In the 63d chapter of Isaiah, and the 9th verse, we read: "In all 
their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved 
them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare 
them, and carried them all the days of old," In all their afflictions 
he was afflicted. You cannot afflict any of God's creatures without 
afflicting him. He takes the place of a living father. When a man 
has a sick child burning with fever, how gladly the father or the 
mother would take that fever and put it into their own bosoms. The 
mother would take from a child its loathsome disease, right out of its 
bodv, and put it into her own — such is a mother's love. How she 
19 



290 LOVE OF GOD. 

pities the child, and how gladly she would suffer in the place of the 
child! That illustration has been often used here — "As a mother 
pitieth her children." You cannot afflict one of God's creatures, 
but God feels it. The Son of his bosom came to redeem us from- 
the curse of the world. I do not see how any man with an open Bi- 
ble before him get up and say to me that he does not see how God 
is love. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friend." Christ laid down his life on the cross, and 
cried in his agony, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they 
do." That was wonderful love. You and I would have called fire 
down from heaven to consume them. We would have sent them all 
down into the hot pavement of hell. But the Son of God lifted up 
his cry, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." 

I hear some one say, " I do not see, I do not understand how it is 
that he loves us." What more proof do you want that God loves 
you? You say, "I am not worthy to be loved." That is true. I 
will admit that. And he does not love you because you deserve it. 
It will help us to get at the Divine love to look a little into our own 
families, and at our human love. Take a mother with nine children, 
and they are all good children save one. One is a prodigal, and he 
has wandered off, and he is everything that is bad. That mother 
will probably love that prodigal boy as much or more than all the 
rest put together. It will be with a love mingled with pity. A 
friend of mine was visiting at a house, some time ago, where quite a 
company were assembled and were talking pleasantly together. He 
noticed that the mother seemed agitated, and was all the while going 
out and coming in. He went to her aside and asked her what 
troubled her; and she took him out into another room and introduced 
him to her boy. There he was, a poor wretched boy, all mangled and 
bruised with the fall of sin. She said: "I have much more trouble 
with him than with all the rest. He has wandered far, but he is my 
boy yet." She loved him still. So God loves you still. 

That love, it ought to break your hearts to hear of; and it ought 
to bring you right to him. You may say you do not deserve it, and 
that is true; but because you do not deserve it, God offers it to you. 
You may say, " If I could get rid of my sins God would love me." 
In Revelation, 1st chapter, 5th verse, it says: "Unto him that loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." It does not say 
he washed us from our sins, and then loved us. He loved us first, 
and then washed us clean. Some people say, You must turn awa}^ 
from sin, and then Christ will love you. But how can you get rid 
of it until you come to him? He takes us into his own bosom, and 
then he cleanses us from sin. He has shed his blood for you; he 
wants you; and he will redeem you to-day, if you will. An English- 
man told me a story once that may serve to illustrate this truth, that 
God loves men in their sin. He does not love sin, but he loves men 



LOVE OF GOD. 291 

even in their sin. He seeks to save them from sin. There was a 
boy, a great many years ago, stolen in London — the same as Charley 
Ross was stolen here. Long months and years passed away, and 
the mother had prayed and prayed, as that mother of Charley Ross 
has prayed, I suppose; and all her efforts had failed, and they had 
given up all hope. But the mother did not quite give up her hope. 
One day a boy was sent up into the neighboring house to sweep the 
chimney, and by some mistake he got down again through the wrong 
chimney. When he came down, he came in by the sitting-room 
chimney. His memory began at once to travel back through the 
years that had passed. He thought that things looked strange and 
familiar. The scenes of the early days of youth were dawning upon 
him; and as he stood there surveying the place, his mother came 
into the room. He stood there, covered with rags and soot. Did 
she wait till she had sent him to be washed before she rushed and 
took him in her arms? No, indeed; it was her own boy. She took 
him to her arms, all black and smoke, and hugged him to her bosom, 
and shed tears of joy upon his head. You have wandered very far 
from him, and there may not be a sound spot on you; but if you will 
just come to God, he will forgive and receive you. There is a verse 
in Isaiah 38th, the 17th verse, that I think a good deal of. It reads: 
" Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corrup- 
tion ; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Mark you, 
the love comes first. He did not say that he had taken away sins and 
cast them behind him. He loved us first, and then he took our sins 
away. I like that little word, m-y, "my," there. The reason we 
do not get any benefit from scripture is, because we are always talk- 
ing about generalizations. We say: God loves nations, God loves 
churches, and loves certain classes of people. But here it reads: 
"Out* of love to my soul, he has taken all my sins and cast them be- 
hind his back." If they are behind his back, they are gone from 
me forever. If they are cast behind his back, how can Satan ever 
get at them again? I will defy any fiend from hell to find them. 
Satan can torment me with them no more. 

There are three thoughts I have tried to bring out to-night; that 
God is love; that his love is unchangeable/ that his love is everlast- 
ing. The fourth thought is this, that his love is unfailing. Your 
love is not. His is. When people come to me and talk about their 
love for God, it chills me through and through; the thermometer 
goes down fifty degrees; but when they talk about God's love for 
them, I know what they would say. So, do not think for a moment 
that God does not love you a good deal more than you love him. 
There is not a sinner here, there is not an unsaved man here to- 
night, but he wants to save, — just as a father loves his child, only a 
thousand times more. Is there a poor wanderer here that has wan- 
dered far from Christ? He sends me to invite you to come to him 
again. I don't care how sinful you are; let this text sink deep into 
your soul to-day, "God is love." 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 

" Son, remember/' Luke 16: 25. 

I want to talk to you about the 25th verse of the 16th chapter of 
Luke — just two words: " Son remember!" You that were here 
yesterday will remember that I spoke to you about the love of God; 
and you that were here last week will remember that I spoke to you 
of heaven, and tried to lure you on to that world of light. And if I 
consulted my own feelings, I should be preaching to you about these 
things to-day. But if a man is going to be a servant and a messen- 
ger of God, he must believe the message just as he finds it. I would 
not dare to go out of this city without delivering to you this side of 
God's truth. Some people come to me and say: "You do not really 
believe that there is such a thing as everlasting retribution and 
future punishment, do you?" Yes, I do. The same Christ that 
talked to us about that bright upper world, has given us a picture of 
the world of the lost. In this portion of the Scripture we have read 
to-day, it has been drawn very vividly by the Master himself. We 
hear a voice coming up out of the lost world, of a man that was once 
upon the earth, and fared sumptuously every day, and yet was lost, 
not for time, but for eternity. Over and over again, Christ while 
here warned those that hung upon his lips. Once, in speaking to 
his disciples, he spoke about the worm that dieth not; about one be- 
ing cast into hell, where the worm dieth not. I believe that worm 
that dieth not is our memory. I believe that what will make that 
lost world so terrible to us is memory. We say now that we forget, 
and we think we do; but the time is coming when we will remem- 
ber, and we cannot forget. There are many things we will want to 
forget, especially our sins, that have been blotted out by God. If 
God has forgotten them, you would think we ought to forget them; 
every sin that has been so taken away and covered up, by the blood 
of his own Son, will come back to us, by and by. We talk about 
the all-recording angel keeping record of our life; God makes us 
keep our own record. We won't need any one to condemn us at the 
bar of God. We will condemn ourselves. It will be our own con- 
science that will come up as a witness against us. God won't con- 
demn us at the l>ar of God; we will condemn ourselves. Will he 
speak to us then, if we stand there, having neglected his offer of 
mercy, his offer of salvation here on earth? No; memory is God's 
officer; and when God touches the secret springs of our memory, 
saying, "Son, remember;" we cannot help but remember. God shall 
292 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 293 

touch these secret springs and say, "Son and daughter, remember;" 
and then tramp, tramp, tramp will come before us a long procession 
— all the sins we have ever committed. 

I have been twice in the jaws of death. Once I was drowning, 
and the third time I was about to sink I was rescued. In the twink- 
ling of an eye everything I had said, done, or thought of, flashed 
across my mind. I do not understand how everything in a man's 
life can be crowded into his recollection in an instant of time; but 
nevertheless it all flashed through my mind. Another time, when I 
thought I was dying, it all came back to me again. It is just so 
that all things we think we have forgotten will come backby-and-by. 
It is only a question of time. We hear the words, "Son, remember!" 
and it is a good deal better for us now to remember our sins, and 
confess them before it is too late. Christ said to his disciples, "Re- 
member Lot's wife." Over and over again, when the children of 
Israel were brought out of Egypt, God said to them, "Remember 
where I found you, and how I delivered you." He wanted them to 
remember his goodness to them; and the time is coming when, if 
they forget his goodness and despise it, they will be without mercy. 
What Satan wants is to keep us from thinking; to drown our mem- 
ory, and stifle our conscience. A man came into the inquiry-room 
the other night, and said he wanted to be a Christian; but he could 
not believe that there was any future punishment. I said: "What 
are you going to do with that man who has been selling liquor for 
twenty years? A widowed mother goes to him and says, 'I have a 
son who goes into your place every night; he is being ruined, and it 
is killing me.' She begs him not' to sell any more liquor to her son; 
she begs and pleads with him. He orders her out of the store, and 
goes on and ruins that widow's only son, as he ruins thousands of 
others. Is he going to be ushered right into glory when he dies? 
What would you do with him? Would you take him right into 
heaven?" He said he did not know what he would do. But the 
Word of God teaches us plainly that there is future retribution. If 
it does not teach that, it does not teach anything. If the Word of 
God tells us about the glory of heaven and the mansions that Christ 
is going to prepare, it tells us also about the torments of hell; it tells 
us about the rich man lifting up his face out of torment, and crying 
for one drop of water. 

This was not presented to us, then, just to frighten people. Some 
people say: "Howjyou are trying to frighten us; you say such things 

1'ust to alarm us." I would consider myself an unfaithful servant if 
did not so warn you; the blood of your souls would be required at 
my hands, if I did not warn you. I do not want you to say I came 
here and never said anything about the lost souls; I do not want any 
of you to think I have covered up this doctrine; and I say it to you 
because God says it. Christ says, " How shall you escape the dam- 



294 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 

nation of hell?" No one spoke of the lost as Christ did; none knew 
it as Christ did. If man were not lost, what did Christ come into 
the world for; or what does the death of the Son of God mean? Is 
it not better for us just to bow to the Word of Go I, and take it as 
God spoke it? If I checked up a book and found there were a hun- 
dred statements in that book; and I had reason to believe, and in 
fact knew, that ninety-nine out of a hundred of these statements 
were correct; and I did not have the evidence at hand to prove that 
the other was, I would have good reason to believe it correct, would 
I not? Xhis picture drawn of the lost world, in the 16th chapter of 
Luke, was drawn by the Son of God himself. He said this rich man 
was lifting up his face in torment, not because he was rich, but be- 
cause the rich man had neglected salvation. If men seek salvation, 
rich or poor, they will be saved; if they do not, rich or poor, they 
will be lost. Do you suppose those antediluvians who perished in 
Noah's day, those men too vile and sinful for the world — do you 
think God swept those men right into heaven and left Noah, the 
only righteous man, to struggle through the deluge? Do you think, 
when the judgment came upon Sodom, that those wicked men were 
taken right into the presence of God, and the only righteous man 
was left behind to suffer? 

There will be no tender, loving Jesus coming and offering you 
salvation, either. He will be far from you there. There will be no 
loving wife to weep over you there, young man. You may have a 
praying wife here to-day; but remember in that lost world you will 
have no praying wife. Did you ever think how dark this world 
would become, if all the praying wives and mothers and ministers 
were out of it? Think of that lost world, where there are no praying 
wives or mothers! Remember the time is coming when you will 
have no loved mother to pray for your soul and for you. Undoubt- 
edly many in that lost world would give millions, if they had them, 
if they had their mothers now to pray them out of that place; but it 
is too late. They had been neglecting salvation until the time has 
come when God says: " Cut them down; they encumber the ground; 
the day of mercy is closed." You laugh at the Bible; but how 
many there are in the lost world to-day that would give countless 
treasures if they had the blessed Bible there! You may make 
sport of ministers; but bear in mind there will be no ministers of 
the gospel there. There will be none there for you to laugh at. 
Here they are, remember, God's messengers to you, his best gifts to 
you — these loving friends that look after your soul. You may have 
some friends praying for your salvation to-day. Remember, you 
will not have one in that lost world. There will be no one to come 
and put his hand on your shoulder and weep over you there, and 
pray for you to come to Christ. Sunday mornings you hear the 
chiming of the bells telling you it is God's day. You very often see 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 295 

the people going up to the house of God; but bear in mind that in 
that lost world no bell will summon you to God's holy tabernacle, no 
bell will warn you of the Sabbath-day. There will be no Sabbath 
there, for you to make light of and sport of. It will be too late! 
Some of you have got Sabbath-school teachers that are burdened 
with your salvation, at this present time. They are pleading day 
and night, that you may be won to Christ. Bear in mind that in 
that lost world no kind teachers will plead for you or with you. There 
will be no special meetings there. 

A great many are laughing and making light of these meetings 
here. When you die, if you come here with that purpose, I believe 
this Hippodrome will rise up in judgment against you. This build- 
ing has been put up without money and without expense to you. 
God put it into the hearts of Christian men to hire this building, at 
a great expense, and throw it wide open. No contributions are taken 
up; no calls are made upon you for money. You cannot say that we 
want your money; we don't want your money. We want you, and 
are trying to win you to Christ; and if you go down from this build- 
ing to hell, you will remember the meetings we had here. You 
will remember how these ministers looked, how the people around 
you closed their eyes and were lifting up their hearts in prayer for 
you, and how it has seemed sometimes as if we were in the very 
presence of God himself; for we have witnessed certainly wonder- 
ful displays of the power of God in this place, many times. In that 
lost world, you won't hear that beautiful hymn, "Jesus of Nazareth 
passeth by." He will have passed by. There will be no Jesus pass- 
ing that way; there will be no sweet songs of Zion there. You come 
here, day after day, and hear these sweet songs, "Jesus, lover of my 
soul, let me to thy bosom fly," "There is a fountain filled with blood, 
drawn from Immanuel's veins," "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me 
hide myself in thee." Oh, my friends, you will not hear those songs 
in that world. They will not be sung there. It is now a day of 
grace and a day of mercy. God is calling the world to himself. He 
says: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn ye, 
turn ye; for why will ye die?" Oh if you neglect this salvation, how 
shall you escape? What hope is there? May your memories be 
wide awake to-day, and may you remember that Christ stands right 
here. He is in this assembly, offering salvation to every soul. You 
may never hear this text again until you hear it on the shores of 
eternity. And then you will remember this Friday evening, and you 
will remember how everything looked then; how Mr. Sankey sung 
that hymn, "Sowing the seed;" and you will remember the text, and 
the sermon will all come back to you. 

I was at the Paris exhibition in 1867, and I noticed there a little 
oil painting, only about a foot square; and the face was the most 
hideous I have ever seen. On the paper attached to the painting 



296 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 

were the words, "Sowing the Tares;" and the face looked more like 
a demon's than a man's. As he sowed these tares, up came serpents 
and reptiles, and they were crawling upon his body; and all around 
were woods, with wolves and animals prowling in them. I have seen 
that picture many times since. Ah! the reaping time is coining. If 
you sow to the flesh, you must reap to the flesh. If you sow to the 
wind, you must reap the whirlwind. God wants you to come to 
him, and receive salvation as a gift. You can decide your destiny 
to-day if you will. Heaven and hell are set before this audience; and 
you are called upon to choose. Which will you have ? If you will 
take him he will receive you to his arms. If you reject him, he 
will reject you. 

Now, my friends, will Christ ever be more willing to save you than 
he is now? Well he ever have more power than he has now? Then 
why not be saved now? Why not make up your mind to be saved 
now, while mercy is offered to you? I remember a few years ago, 
while the Spirit of God was working in our church, I closed the 
meeting one night by asking if there were any that would like to 
become Christians to rise; and to my great joy a man arose that had 
been anxious for some time. I went up to him and took him by the 
hand and shook it and said: "I am glad to see you get up. You are 
coming out for the Lord now, in earnest?" "Yes," said he, "I think 
so. That is, there is only one thing in my way." Said I, "What's 
that?" "Well," said he, "I lack moral courage. I confess to you 
that if such a man" — naming a friend of his — "Had been here to- 
night, I should not have risen. He would laugh at me if he knew 
of this; and I don't believe I have the courage to tell him." "But," 
said I, "you have got to come out boldly for the Lord, if you come 
out at all. That is what you have got to do;" and I talked with him, 
and he was trembling from head to foot. I thought the Spirit of 
God was striving with him, and I believe the Spirit was striving 
earnestly with him. I did not labor with that man as I have often 
wished since that I had. I wish that night I had prayed more earn- 
estly with him. He came back the next night, and the next night, 
and the next night; and the Spirit of God strove with him for weeks. 
It seemed as if he came to the very threshold of heaven, and was al- 
most stepping over into the blessed world. I never could find out 
any reason for this hesitation, except that he feared his old compan- 
ions would laugh at him. I notice that when men go to prison, no 
one laughs at them; but when they come out and declare their inten- 
tion of leading good lives and standing up for Jesus, the men laugh 
at them and make sport of them. 

Well, I thought surely this man would be brought into the foldj 
but at last the Spirit of God seemed to leave him ; conviction was 
gone. And then, after that, when he used to meet me on the street 
he used to shun me; and if I met him coming along the same side of 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 297 

the street, he would cross over to the other side, and dodge me in 
every way he could. He finally got so he didn't come to church on 
the Sabbath. He always used to come before. And that is the fault 
some people find with these meetings. They say it hardens people. 
Yes, it does harden some people. Any man that goes through a 
special meeting like this and rejects the gospel, of course becomes 
hardened, and his chances are much less for heaven. The things 
that formerly moved them do not move them so readily the next 
time. It hardens a great many; it hardened this man. Six months 
after that time, I got a message from him that he was sick and 
wanted to see me. I went to him, in great haste. He was very 
sick, and thought he was dying. He asked me if there was any hope. 
Yes, I told him. God had sent Christ to save him, and I prayed 
with him. Contrary to all expectations and to the belief of the 
physicians, he recovered and got off from his sick-bed. One day I 
went down to see him. It was a bright, beautiful day, and he was 
sitting out in front of his house convalescing rapidly; and I said: 
"You are coming out for God now, aren't you? You will be well 
enough soon to come back to our meetings again?" Said he: "Mr. 
Moody, I have made up my mind to become a Christian. My mind 
is fully made up to that; but I won't be one just now. I am going* 
to Michigan to buy a farm and settle down; and then I will become 
a Christian." Said I, "But you don't know yet that you will get 
well." " Oh," said he, " I will be perfectly well in a few days. I'll 
risk it. I have got a new lease of life." "Oh," said I, " It seems to 
me that you are tempting God;" and I pleaded with him, and tried 
every way to get him to take his stand. At last said he: "Mr. 
Moody, I can't be a Christian in Chicago. When I get away from 
Chicago, and get to Michigan, away from my friends and acquaint- 
ances, who laugh at me, I will be ready to go to Christ." Said I: 
"If God has not got grace enough to save you in Chicago, he has 
not in Michigan;" and I preached Christ to him, and urged Christ 
upon him. At last he got a little irritated, and said: "Mr. Moody, 
you can just attend to your business, and I will to mine; and if I 
lose my soul, no one will be to blame but myself — certainly not you, 
for you have done all you could." I went away from that house 
then with a heavy heart. 

I well remember the day of the week, Thursday, about noon, just 
one week from that very day, when I was sent for by his wife to 
come in great haste. I hurried there at once. His poor wife met 
me at the door, and I asked her what was the matter. " My hus- 
band," she said, "has been taken down with the same disease; and 
I have just had a council of physicians here; and they have all given 
him up to die." Said 1, "Does he want to see me?" "No," said 
she. "Then why did you send for me?" Said she, "I cannot bear 
to see him die in tbis *errible state of mind." "What does he say?" 



298 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 

I asked. Said she: "He says his damnation is sealed, and he will 
be in hell in a little while." I went in, and he at once fixed his eye 
upon me. I called him by name, but he was speechless. I went 
around to the foot of the bed and looked into his face and said, 
" Won't you speak to me?" And at last he fixed that terrible, death- 
ly look upon me and said: "Mr. Moody, you need not talk to me any 
more. It is too late. You can talk to my wife and children ; pray 
for them ; but my heart is as hard as the iron in that stove there. 
My damnation is sealed, and I will be in hell in a little while." I 
tried to tell him of Jesus' love and of God's forgiveness; but he 
said: "Mr. Moody, don't you mock me. I tell you there is no hope 
forme." And as I fell on my knees he said: "You need not pray 
for me; you need not pray for a lost soul. My wife will soon be 
left a widow, and my children will be fatherless. They need your 
prayers; but you need not pray for me." I tried to pray; but it 
seemed as if my prayers didn't go higher than my head, and as if the 
heaven above me was like brass. As I took the cold, clammy hand 
the sweat of death was upon it; and it seemed like bidding farewell 
to a man I should never see in time or eternity. I left him with a 
broken heart. That was about noon. The next day his wife told 
me he lingered until the sun went down behind those western prai- 
ries; and from noon until he died, all he was heard to say was, "The 
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved." After 
lingering along an hour he would say again those words; and just 
as he was expiring his wife noticed his lips quiver, and that he was 
trying to say something; and as she bent over him she heard him 
mutter: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not 
saved!" and the angels bore him away to judgment. He lived a 
Christless life; he died a Christless death; we wrapped him in a 
Christless shroud, aud bore him away to a Christless grave. Oh, 
how dark and sad! 

Are there some here who are almost persuaded to be Christians? 
Take my advice, and not let anything keep you away. Fly to the 
arms of Jesus, this day and hour. You can be saved, if you will. 
Son, remember! I have warned you to-day. Daughter, remember! 
you cannot say that I did not lift up a warning voice to-day, and 
exhort you with all my soul to escape the damnation of hell. 



WHAT SEEK YE? 

"One of the two whieh heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's 
brother. 1 ' John 1:40. 

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall 
be added unto you." Matthew 6: 33. 

There are two things I want to call your attention to, this evening 
The first is in the words of the 1st chapter of John, 40th verse; and 
the second is in the 6th chapter of Matthew, 33d verse. The first 
text is the first words that fell from the lips of Christ, at the com- 
mencement of his ministry. It was the question he put to those two 
disciples who came and questioned him as to where he dwelt. One 
afternoon, about four o'clock, John the Baptist stood with two of his 
disciples, and Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, a little way off; and 
John lifted up his hand and pointed to the man off in the distance, 
and said: "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of 
the world!" and John, the beloved disciple, and Andrew left their 
old master and went together toward Jesus; and Jesus turned around 
as they came up to him and said: "What seek ye?" I thought this 
evening I would like for a few moments to call your attention to that 
text, and press that question home upon the people here. I would 
like to have all of you ask yourselves the questions: What are you 
seeking? What did you come for? What motive brought you here 
this evening? What do these great crowds of people here mean, 
day after day, week after week. 

There were all classes of people seeking for Christ, and they had 
every kind of motive for seeking him. There were some who came 
out of curiosity, just to see what would happen. There was another 
class who came to him because they had friends that were diseased, 
and they wanted their friends to be healed and blessed. There was 
the class who came with the hope of getting the loaves and fishes. 
And there was still another class, that were trying to murder him 
and get him out of the way; they were watching him, and striving 
to get him into some conversation in which they might entangle him 
with his words, and so get an excuse to bring him before the San- 
hedrim, and cause him to be called guilty of blasphemy, and pun- 
ished. Some sought him for what they could get; and others sought 
him for what he was. And that is the class we are after, namely, 
those who are not seeking Christ for what they can get, but who are 
seeking him lor what he is, personally. I have no doubt but that a 
great many of the disciples first sought him in order to be identified 
299 



300 



WHAT SEEK YE t 



with him; because they thought he would set up an earthly king- 
dom, and establish his throne upon earth. Judas perhaps thought 
so, and that he might become the chief treasurer of such a kingdom; 
and perhaps Peter thought that he might become the chief secretary; 
and when the sons of Zebedee found out that it was a spiritual king- 
dom that he was to establish, their mother came and asked of Christ 
that her sons might be placed the one upon his right hand, and the 
other upon his left. All the time during his ministry, Christ con- 
stantly found men seeking for office and honor; and that is precisely 
the spirit to-day. One of our greatest troubles, and one great reason 
why we do not get greater blessings from God, is because we are 
not pure in our motives for seeking him. I say there is not a man 
or a woman (and I see they are nearly all women here to-night), who 
has come here for a blessing from God, and who has that motive, 
but will get it. Others will go away without any blessing, and with 
hearts as hard and cold as ever. Why? Because they have not 
come to get a blessing. 

1 would like to ask you to take this brief question home to your 
hearts to-day, "What seek ye?" What are you after this evening ? 
What motive brought you to this place? I think one would say; 
"I came because some friends of mine were coining; I did not have 
any particular motive at all; 1 came because my friends asked me to 
come." I ask another, What did you come for? "Well, I came to 
see the crowd; I heard there were a great many men and women 
here; and I thought it would be a wonderful sight to see so many 
together." A man told me the other day that he came to see the 
chairs. He said he heard there were 10,000 chairs all in one hall; 
and he thought they must look so strange. He had a curiosity to 
see them. Thank God, that man got caught in the gospel net that 
very night; and I hope some others that come just out of curiosity, 
this evening, will get caught with the old gospel net. But, to return 
to our question, What brought you here? A lady over there says; 
"I came to hear the singing; I don't care anything about the preach- 
ing. I have heard the word preached till I am tired of it; and if I 
had my way about it, I would rather get up and go out as soon as 
the singing is over." But if any of you have come here with such 
motives, and will change your minds after you get here, and will seek 
to come to God to-night, you will find him, whatever your motive 
was at first in coming. You may even have come here to make 
sport of the meeting; you may have come here to ridicule everything 
you should hear; but if you will repent, and change your mind, the 
Lord Jesus will bless you to-night, and forgive you, and this may 
be the best meeting you ever was at in your life. 

Now I want to call your attention to the other text I spoke of. 
My text is both a question and a command. The question is, "What 
seek ye?" and the command is this: "Seek ye first the kingdom 



WHAT SEEK YE ? 301 

of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you." This is just as much a command as that is, that Thou 
shalt not steal. It is just as much a command for us to seek the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness, as it is a command that we 
shall not swear. It is one of the commands of the Bible. Jesus, 
when he was down here, in that memorable sermon on the Mount, 
said: "Seek first the kingdom of God." That was to come first; it 
was to come in ahead of everything else. The Master's ways are 
not our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. What we put 
last, God puts first; what we put first, he puts last; the whole thing 
is reversed. We say, we do not want to seek the kingdom of God 
first. We have a good many things that must be attended to, before 
we seek the kingdom of God. I know, if persons think they would 
like to be converted, they always think they have some preparations 
to make beforehand. Now, this is just as much a command to-day 
as it was so many hundreds of years ago. Do you think if he was on 
earth to-day, he would alter that command? Do you think he would 
say for you to put off your salvation for one hour? Do you think he 
would tell you to seek his kingdom at some future time? Every day 
we hear of persons dying suddenly; sometimes without God and 
without hope, because they have not obeyed this command to seek 
first the kingdom of God. One reason that people do not seek first 
the kingdom of God is this: that they do not believe that God is real, 
and that he has a kingdom, and that they can find him; but they 
make light of the existence of his kingdom. The whole living world 
is seeking for something. There is not a person in this world who 
is not seeking for something. Then why not seek for the best 
things? If people will so seek for temporal things, doesn't it serve to 
show that you do not believe that God is real; or else you would 
first seek the kingdom of God, and find it before any of these other 
things? 

I heard, some time ago, of a young man who wanted to become a 
Christian. His father was a worldly man, full of ambition and a de- 
sire to get on. His son went to him and told him his wish. The 
father turned around in astonishment, put on a dissatisfied look, and 
said: "My son, you have made a mistake. You had better wait 
until you get established in business; wait till you get older; better 
wait till you make some money; there is plenty of time yet to be- 
come a Christian." Does any young man here believe that? You 
know what the rich man in the scripture said and did. That man 
had got well on in business; he had made lots of money; his goods 
were increasing every year. At last, after an unusually plentiful 
harvest, he found he had to build more barns and storehouses. He 
felt sure of being able to enjoy himself; he was happy and contented, 
as he thought how his bank account was swelling, "Soul, take thine 
ease, thou hast much goods laid up for many days." He never 



302 WHAT SEEK YE ? 

thought of the future; the present was all he cared anything 
about. But in his fancied security, he heard the dread and startling 
summons, " Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
He had to leave all these things behind him; death snatched him 
away, and he lost the heaven he had neglected to make sure of on 
earth. 

I heard a story of a young lady who was deeply concerned about 
her soul. Her father and mother, however, were worldly people. 
They thought lightly of her serious wishes; they did not sympathize 
with her state of mind. They made up their minds that she should 
not become a Christian, and tried every way they could to discour- 
age her notions about religion. At last they thought they would 
get up a large party, and thus with gayety and pleasure win her 
back to the world. So they made every preparation for a gay time; 
they even sent to neighboring towns, and got all her most worldly 
companions to come to the house; they bought her a magnificent silk 
dress and jewelry, and decked her out in all the finery of such an oc- 
casion. The young lady thought there would be no harm in attend- 
ing the party; that it would be a trifling affair, a simple thing, and 
she could, after it was over, think again of the welfare of her soul. 
She went, decked out in all her adornments, and was the belle of the 
ball. Three weeks from that night she was on her dying bed. She 
asked her mother to bring her ball-dress in. She pointed her finger 
at it, and, bursting into tears said, " That is the price of my soul." 
She died before the dawn. Oh, my friends, if you are anxious 
about your soul, let everything else go; let parties and festivals pass. 
Seek ye first the kingdom of God; then all these things will be 
added unto you. God commands you to do it. If you are lost — if 
you die in your sin — whose fault is it? God has commanded you to 
repent, and to seek salvation at once. 

Are any of you going to take the responsibility of putting it off? 
You complain because Christ is urged upon you; you complain be- 
cause your friends are anxious about you. How can they be other- 
wise than anxious? You heard what Mr. Sankey said a little while 
ago, about the death of a husband of one of our choir. This morn- 
ing, while I was preaching, he passed away. We prayed for him at 
the opening, and again at the close of that service; but he was gone 
before we got through. Three of the ushers have been taken away 
since I have been preaching here. "When I got up here to preach 
this evening, I said to myself, "Perhaps it is my turn next." But, 
thank God, I have an interest up yonder. I can read my title clear 
there. I have sought and found Christ. But on the other hand, 
see how people go on day by day, and year by year, and disobey the 
command of God. They say there is plenty of time. Why, you 
hear every day of wills being upset, because the man's mind was 
proved not to be clear when he made the will on his death-bed. If 



WHAT SEEK YE ? 303 

his mind is not clear enough when he is dying to settle his little af- 
fairs here below, is that a time to repent and make provision for 
eternity? Is it the time, when we are racked with pain and tor- 
tured with anguish, to turn our hearts to God? Is that a time to 
begin to think of salvation? Is it right or honorable to give the 
dregs of a wasted and misspent life to God? I tell you I have not 
much faith in death-bed repentances. I do not limit the power and 
mercy of God; but I do not believe in them. If there is one out of 
a thousand that is saved, there are nine hundred and ninety-nine 
that are lost. They think that they repent then; but they are scared 
and terrified. It is not repentance, it is fear; when they get better, 
they go right back again to their wicked ways. 

We cannot scare people into repentance; they must be born in, 
not be scared in. Let us reason for a moment. Suppose you ask 
the advice of a friend on the earth as to whether you had not better 
repent now. While I am preaching, young lady, just ask your 
mother sitting beside you what you had better do. Whisper to her 
— I'll excuse you — ask her if you had not better seek the kingdom 
of God now. Young lady, there is not one in the wide, wide world 
who loves you as your mother. Would she not advise you to accept 
Christ? Now just ask her. Most of those who are not Christians 
will advise you to seek the kingdom of God now, this very minute. 
If I go up yonder and ask them in heaven, every one there would 
tell you to seek the kingdom now. Paul for three years preach- 
ed upon immediate repentance. He besought his hearers with tears 
to turn from their sins and be saved. "Behold, now is the accepted 
time." That was what he preached. Yes, I leave heaven and earth 
and go down to the very borders of hell, and will ask them there if 
it is not better to repent now. They would all with one voice an- 
swer, "Yes, yes, yes!" The only time we ever heard from that 
place was to have a young man implore that word might be sent to 
his father's house, that his brothers there might be warned against 
neglecting salvation. Yes; ihe lost ones would tell you to escape, 
and seek the kingdom of God, and be saved. Why, then, heaven, 
earth and hell all unite in warning you to seek the kingdom of God. 
Why will you not do it then? Why not accept Christ this very day? 
Just think what will become of you if you do not. 

When the Lawrence Mills were on fire, a number of years ago — I 
don't mean on fire, but when the mill fell in; the great mill fell in, 
and after it had fallen in, the ruins caught fire. There was only one 
room left entire, and in it were three Mission Sunday-school children 
imprisoned. The neighbors and all hands got their shovels and picks 
and crowbars, and were working to set the children free. It came 
on night, and they had not yet reached the children. When they 
were near them, by some mischance a lantern broke; and the ruins 
caught fire. They tried to put it out; but they could not succeed. 



304 WHAT SEEK YE ? 

They could talk with the children, and even passed to them some 
hot coffee and some refreshments, and encouraged them to keep up. 
But, alas! the flames drew nearer and nearer to this prison. Super- 
human were the efforts made to rescue the children; the men bravely 
fought back the flames, but the fire gained fresh strength and re- 
turned to claim its victims. Then piercing shrieks arose, when the 
spectators saw that the efforts of the firemen were hopeless. The 
children saw their fate. They then knelt down, and commenced to 
sing the little hymn we have all been taught in our Sunday-school 
days, oh, how sweet! 

"Let others seek a home below, 

Which flames devour and waves overflow." : 

The flames had now reached them; the stifling smoke began to 
pour into their little room; and they began to sink, one by one, upon 
the floor. A few moments more and the fire circled around them; 
and their souls were taken into the bosom of Christ. Yes; let 
others seek a home below if they will; but seek ye the kingdom of 
Ood with all your hearts. 

When I was a young man, before I left my native town, T was at 
work in the field one day in company with a man, a neighbor of 
mine. All at once I saw him begin to weep. I asked him what the 
trouble was. He then told me a strange story — strange to me then, 
for I was not at that time a Christian. He said that his mother was 
a Christian when he left home to seek his fortune. When he was 
about starting his mother took him by the hand and spoke these parting 
w r ords: "My son, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness, and all things else shall be added unto thee." "This," 
said he, "was my mother's favorite text." When he got into the 
town to which he was going he had to spend the Sabbath there. He 
went to church, and the minister took this very text, " Seek ye first 
the kingdom of God." He thought it very strange. Well, he said 
he would not seek the kingdom then. He would wait until he got 
& start in life, until he got a farm and some money. Yet that text 
troubled him. Again he went to church, and to his amazement the 
sermon was on that very same text. He did not attend church for 
some time. At last he was induced again to enter the church, and 
behold! he heard the preacher take that very same text. He thought 
then it was God speaking to him, that his mother's prayers were be- 
ing answered. But he coolly, calmly and deliberately made up his 
mind that he would not be a Christian. "I have never heard any 
sermon since," said he, "that has made any impression on me." 
I was not a Christian myself then, so I didn't know how to talk to 
him. The time came for me to leave home. I went to Boston, and 
there I became a convert. When I got to be a Christian, the first 
tiling that camp into my mind was that man. I made up my mind 



TKUST IX THE LORD. 305 

to try to bring him to Christ. When I came home, I mentioned the 
name to my mother, and asked if he was living. "Is he living?" 
she exclaimed. "Didn't I write to you about him?" "Write me 
what?" "Why, that he had gone out of his mind and is now in the 
insane asylum." When I got up there, he pointed his finger at me. 
Says he, "Young man, seek ye first the kingdom of God." He had 
never forgotten the text. Although his mind was shattered and 
gone, the text was there. 

My friends, do let that man speak to you. He is gone now. How 
much better it would have been for him to have followed his moth- 
er's prayer. The Spirit of God may be striving with some one to- 
night. I may be standing here for the last time. Let me plead 
with you once more to seek the kingdom of God, and seek it with 
all your hearts. 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 

"Trust ye in the Lord forever.'" Isaiah, 26: 4. 

My text this evening is just one short word — five letters in it 

"Trust." Five letters with five heads: Trust, whom to trust, when 
to trust, how to trust, and then who will trust him, and the result of 
trusting. Now, I have not come to-day to preach a sermon as much 
as I have to tell you how you can be saved. I see a good many here 
who have been in the inquiry -rooms during the past week, and have 
gone away with their heads down, sad and weary, carrying the bur- 
den, not leaving it all with Jesus. Now, God helping me, I want 
to make the way so plain that you can all be saved this evening. 

Whom to trust! In that portion of scripture I have just read, we 
are told whom not to trust. We are told not to trust in the arm of 
flesh. "Cursed be the man that maketh the arm of flesh his trust," 
and Isaiah, in the 26th chapter, 3d and 4th verses, tell us whom to 
trust: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on thee, because he trusted in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever, 
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Now, you cannot 
find any one who has put his whole trust in God but he has perfect 
peace. His soul is at rest. It is not tossed about upon every wave 
of doctrine, but it is at rest; because it is utterly impossible for any- 
body to put entire trust in God, and not have perfect peace. That 
20 



306 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 



is the reward to those who do so. If we put our trust in our own 
strength, it will fail us. If we put our trust in our money, some 
thieves may get it away, fires may burn it up, it may take to itself 
wings. If we put our trust in friends, they will die and leave us. 
If we trust in anything on earth, we will be disappointed; but if we 
put our trust in God, he never dies. He never breaks a promise. 
He is everlasting strength. All human strength fails. All earthly 
streams get dry sometimes; but God never fails. The Keeper of 
Israel never slumbers, never sleeps. Therefore if our trust is in him, 
and we look to him wholly and entirely for everything, why we will 
have peace and joy. Then, in the 62d Psalm, which was read here 
by Dr. Hall, one day this week, 10th verse, we find these words: 
"My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from 
him." The trouble is, we wait upon every one else but God. We 
are running to this one and that one, but don't wait on him. " He 
only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense, I shall not be 
moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my 
strength and refuge is God." 

Now, here is a verse I want to call your attention to, and that is 
the second head — When to trust. " Trust in him at all times." 
There are a good many that will trust in God when they are in no 
trouble and don't apparently need to trust; but to trust in God when 
they are in great trouble and difficulty is what they do not do. We 
do not leave it all with him, and rest assured that everything works 
together for good to them that love God. That is something they 
know very little about. Here and there, there is one willing to trust 
God when they cannot see how it is coming out. That is what the 
psalmist calls our attention to. Trust him at all times — not a part 
of the time, but at all times. If we don't trust him, of course we 
don't have peace and joy; but if we trust him at all times, the Lord 
never leaves us. Whoever heard of one's being left in a time of 
trouble when their trust was in God, and all their expectation was 
from him? " Trust him at all times, ye people; pour out your heart 
before him." God is a refuge for us. 

But I can imagine some one saying: "I don't know what it is to 
trust. I have been waiting for that trust. I have been praying for 
it." I met a woman in the inquiry-room, the other night, who told 
me she had been praying thirty years, I think, for faith; that she 
might just trust God. Now, that is not a miraculous trust at all. It 
is the same kind of trust we have in one another. Don't you know 
that all business in this city would be suspended within forty-eight 
hours, if the business men didn't trust one another? Let the busi- 
ness community once lose its confidence, and see how quick busi- 
ness is paralyzed. Why, there would be a rush on every bank in 
New York, if the people hadn't confidence. That is what Paul 
meant when he said: "I am persuaded he is able to keep that I have 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 307 

committed to him." I trust God to keep my soul; and so we just 
commit our soul to God and trust him, and rest right there. Cer- 
tainly, when any one of you are sick, you trust the doctor. If not, 
you would not have him come to see you. If you thought he was 
going to poison you, you could not be hired to take his medicine. 
Now, what you want is, to trust the great physician of your soul. 
Trust Christ; he never lost a case yet. Trust him; he will keep you 
and not let you die; If this great temple we live in dissolves, we 
have a building death cannot touch, eternal in the heavens; and we 
save that building just by trust. If you have a case in court and 
don't know anything about law, you have unbounded confidence in 
your lawyer; and you leave the case in his hands and trust him to 
take care of your interests. And so you have got a bad case, an 
awful bad case ; and the best thing you can do now is to commit it to 
the great Advocate, Jesus Christ. He will take care of your case 
and bring you out of all your trouble, if you only put your trust in 
him. 

I can imagine some of you saying, " I will try." How many times 
I have heard that — "I will try and trust him." Now, that is nothing 
but downright insult. It is just saying, "I won't trust you." If 
after my making a statement to you, you should say to me, " Mr. 
Moody, I will try and believe you," I would think it an insult. It 
is an insult to talk that way to the Lord. What reason have you for 
not believing him? Have you any reason under heaven for not tak- 
ing God at his word and believing on him, that you might have 
everlasting life? How is it when you take man at his wird? He 
makes promises often that he cannot keep, and which he did not in- 
tend to keep when he made them. If you can take man at his word 
— and you do trust him — why can you not take God at his word? 

There has been a man in the inquiry-room, during the last month, 
with whom I talked a great deal. Night after night I talked with 
him. He lives in a part of the city where I am staying, and night 
after night I have walked up with him, and talked with him. The 
other night going with him there was another friend, and after he 
separated from us he said to himself: " If Mr. Moody had told me 
he would see me to-morrow morning at nine o'clock, I would believe 
him; and if so, why cannot I believe God in the same way? I will," 
and he was converted there in the street, on the spot. He said, "I 
will believe him as I would anybody else;" and that is what trust 
is — taking God at his word. Hasn't he promised to receive every 
one as he came? If I die, I will die trusting. If I perish, I will 
perish trusting. No one ever perished that way yet. Just to show 
you what unbelief is, in the 5th chapter of John, 9th verse: "If we 
receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is 
the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that be- 
lieveth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that be- 



308 TRUST IN THE LORD. 

lieveth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the 
record that God gave of his Son. And this is trie record that God 
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that 
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath 
not life. Now, if any one came here and told me he saw a man go 
out and stand in the street, I would believe what he said. I would 
take his testimony. If any one or two of these men here should go 
into court and testify, it would be established in any court. Now, 
he says here, if you take the testimony of men, is not the testimony 
of God greater? "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the 
witness in himself." "He that believeth not God hath made him a 
liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." 
Now, when you say you will "try" and trust him, it means you won't 
believe him. It means you won't trust him; that you won't take 
him at his word. 

Now, how to trust him. That is a very important question. In 
the 3d of Proverbs, 1st verse, we find these words: "My son, forget 
not my law, but let thy heart keep my commandments." Don't give 
the devil a little corner in your heart. Don't let the world have any 
part of your heart. Trust him with all your heart. That is how to 
trust him. "Trust in the Lord, with all thine heart, and lean not to 
thine own understanding." Why? Because the heart is chief 
among all things, and you cannot trust your own understanding. 
"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path." 
You know what it is to trust any one with all your heart. You have 
got friends, and many of you wives and husbands, that you trust with 
all your heart. You have mothers, in whom you place the most im- 
plicit reliance. You never have any suspicion coming up in your 
heart against them. You never think of doubting them. You take 
them at their word; you believe what they say, with all your heart. 
Now why should you not trust God with all your heart? Why should 
you believe the devil's lies about God? Why say you will try and 
trust him, when you have no reason to doubt trusting him? There 
is a story told of Alexander the Great. He received a note from 
some one stating that his favorite doctor was going to poison him, 
and the doctor was with Alexander when the note came; and just 
then he was giving the emperor the medicine, for he was sick. As 
Alexander took the cup of medicine he held up the letter, read if off 
to the doctor, and swallowed the medicine. That was to show the 
doctor that he had confidence in him, that he did not believe what 
was in the letter. Some one was trying to injure the doctor, to get 
him put to death; but the emperor had such confidence in his doctor 
that he just took the medicine, and didn't believe a word of it. That 
is what I call believing with all your heart. Now there might have 
been poison in that cup; but do you think there is any poison in 
God's cup? He offers you the cup of salvation. Do you think it is 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 309 

poison and death to any one that will take that cup? Do you think 
any one can perish that will trust God for salvation? 

There is a story told of old Dr. Chalmers, who went to see a 
Scotch woman in her time of trouble about her sin. In the North 
of Scotland they spend a good deal of thought in just looking at 
themselves, and occupying themselves with their misgivings. This 
Scotch woman was trying to get faith. She hadn't the right kind 
of faith, and the doctor was going to see her. On his way he had 
to cross a stream over which there was nothing but a thin plank, 
and he thought it looked rotten and insecure; and he went up and 
put his foot upon the plank doubtingly, and feared to trust his 
weight upon it. And the Scotch woman, watching him from the 
window, saw that he was afraid to venture out on the plank, and she 
came out and shouted, "Just trust the plank, doctor." And the doctor 
did trust the plank, and walked over the stream in safety. Afterwards 
he was talking with the woman, and she hadn't the right kind of faith, 
she said, and was lamenting over her lot; and the doctor, in his 
means to explain to her what was the trust she ought to have, at 
last hit upon the circumstance of his crossing the plank, and using 
the woman's queer Scotch expression, said to her, "Trust Christ, 
cannot you?" "Oh, doctor, is that faith?" said she. "Is it just to 
trust him?" "That is faith," said he; "just to trust him, as I trusted 
that plank. It carried me over; and you trust God, and he will 
carry you over." "Oh," said she, "I can do that." That means 
trust the plank. Just trust it; and it won't break under you. 

"Though he slay me I will trust him," in spite of the devil and all 
his lies. You cannot perish if you do. No man or woman ever 
perished that put their whole trust in him. Who will trust him? I 
will tell you who will; those that know him. Those who are under 
the power of the devil and believe in the devil's lies, won't trust him. 
Suppose some one were to tell you a lot of lies about me, you would 
not trust me, then, of course. • If you believe the devil's lies about 
God, that God is not a God of mercy, and of love, and of truth, you 
won't trust in God, of course. When the devil went to Eden, the 
first thing he did was to begin to doubt. He said to Adam: "Did 
God say that? He knows very well it is not true. He knows that 
when you eat that fruit you become equal with God." We get into 
the pit just where Adam and Eve got in, unless we put our faith and 
confidence in God, and believe in him and trust him unreservedly. 
Scripture tells us who will trust him. "And they that know thy 
name will have trust in thee, and the Lord will not forsake them." 
A man that knows God will trust him. The people who are running 
away from God are strangers to him, and do not know anything 
about him. Never was any one well acquainted with the Bible who 
did not trust him. Those who are have no ground of unbelief, no 



310 TRUST IN THE LORD. 

reason for not trusting him unreservedly, with all their heart and 
mind and strength. 

Some one told me about a boy he once met in the Highlands of 
Scotland. There was a party of men who wanted to get the eggs of 
some rare birds there; and they wanted a boy to allow himself to be 
let down by a rope, over a fearful precipice, to a ledge where the 
eggs were deposited. They wanted to let the boy down in a basket; 
and they offered him considerable money for it. He was a poor 
boy, and needed the money; but all they could offer would not 
hire the boy to do it. But after they had teased him for some time, 
he said to them, "If my father will hold the rope I will go." He 
knew his father, and he would trust him; but he could not trust these 
strangers. 

A man that really knows God will trust him. Did you ever hear 
of any one that was well acquainted with him that would not trust 
him? Did you ever hear of any Christian that knew anything about 
him that would not trust him? It is these infidels, who do not know 
God, that will not trust him. The only way is for you to go to him. 
How are you going to get to him to know him? Through the Scrip- 
tures: There he is revealed in Jesus Christ. There is no other way 
of knowing him, only Jesus Christ. 

I want to call your attention to one thing — the result of trusting. 
You read of it in the 26th chapter of Isaiah. People want peace. 
There is nothing we want more than we want peace. All men are 
in pursuit of peace; and they do not know where to get it. They 
try various ways. They think they can get it with money; they think 
they can get it in the world; but the world cannot satisfy the long- 
ings of any soul, or help it to find peace. "Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." It would satisfy a 
good many to have it read in this way: Thou wilt keep him in per- 
fect peace whose mind is stayed on himself. People are all the time 
looking into their own feelings, and thinking about themselves. The 
most wretched people in the wide, wide world are those that are 
thinking about themselves. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
whose mind is stayed on thee" — not who thinks of him now and then. 
It does not say so, but it says, "whose thoughts are stayed" on him. 
In Proverbs, 16th chapter, and 20th verse, we read: "He that trust- 
eth in the Lord, happy is he." Then in the 32d Psalm, 10th verse, 
it says: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, and he that trusteth 
in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." Now it says, God will 
be merciful to him that trusteth in him. In Psalms 5th chapter, 11th 
verse, it says: "Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; let 
them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them." As the 
horses and chariots of the Almighty surrounded Elisha when he en- 
camped upon the mountain, so the angels of God are encamped 
around them that put their trust in him. "Let them also that love 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 311 

thy name be joyful in thee." In these verses there is peace, happi- 
ness, mercy and joy — all these blessings promised to those who trust 
in him. 

A great many people are looking for the fruit; but they do not 
care about the tree. A great many people who live in the country 
are not willing to plant trees on their places, but want to buy the 
fruit. But if you are going to get the fruit of heaven, you have got 
to have the tree. If you have the tree, the fruit will be good. If 
you will first take his word and trust it, then follow peace and joy 
and mercy and happiness, all together in their places; and there is no 
peace and joy until you do trust and have confidence in God. Why 
are not people willing to come out on the Lord's side? Because 
they're afraid. Some women will not because they have husbands 
that are opposed to the family altar. But if your husband won't go, 
start alone. A woman in the inquiry room, the other day, told me 
that as soon as her husband would become a Christian she would; but 
she was waiting" for him to be one. But, my friends, we do not go to 
heaven by families; it is one by one. Coming down here to-day, I 
met two funerals; but they were distinct and separate. One by one, 
we pass to the bar of God; one by one, we must go into the king- 
dom. I have no hope for those people that become Christians because 
some one else does. That is a personal matter; you want to come 
out on the Lord's side because it is right. If no one else will do it, I 
hope you will do it here to-day. In the 37th Psalm, 3d verse, it says: 
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shaltthou dwell in the land, and 
verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he 
shall give thee the desires of thy heart. Commit thy way unto the 
Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. And He shall 
bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the 
noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Fret not 
thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man 
who bringeth wicked devices to pass." 

Now one more verse and I will be through quoting Scripture — the 
11th verse of the 49th chapter of Jeremiah. First, it says in the 37th 
Psalm, 40th verse, "He will save them because they trust in him;" 
that He will bring them out of all their troubles. There are two or 
three classes here to-day. Some are those who have learned to cast 
all their burdens upon God. There are a good many Christians who 
have not learned that lesson, but are carrying their burdens and sor- 
rows still. Another class never cast either their burdens or their sins 
on Christ, but are carrying both burdens and sins themselves. What 
I want to say is, that you can cast everything on Christ, all sin and 
burden, and go out of this house with your hearts' leaping within you. 
I want to call your attention to that verse. There may be hundreds 
of widows in this house to-night. You may complain of your lot, and 
be passing through deep affliction. He says: "Leave thy fatherless 



312 TRUST IN THE LORD. 

children; I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me." 
When I was in England I knew an eminent minister, who a few 
months afterward died. And for a while before he died, he was troub- 
led for fear his wife and children might come to want. He carried 
the burden of that fear for days. A little while before he died he 
was lying on his sofa, and a little bird came and pecked at the win- 
dow; the bird had a worm in its mouth, and afterward it flew away. 
The man said to himself, "Dear me! God takes care of that bird; he 
feeds it, yet here am I troubled about my family !" And there and 
then the burden was laid on the Lord. He had been one of those 
liberal men, and had given his money to others all through his life. 
Well, when he died, the people in the town raised £5,000 for his 
widow. God took care of them. 

A good many people go forward into the future, and they bring 
all the troubles they expect to have down to the present time. They 
go reeling and staggering under them, and say, "I don't know what 
will become of me next year, or next week;" instead of remembering 
the words of assurance, "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be." 
He has plenty of grace for us. What we want is to go to him with 
all our troubles, and cast everything upon him. The first summer 
the war broke out, I heard in the fall of that same year something 
that touched my heart. A poor woman had been made a widow by 
the war. In midwinter time, she heard that her husband had been 
cut down. She had two little children, and she did not know what 
would become of her; her health was not very good and she had no 
money. A few days after, the landlord came round for his rent. 
He was a poor, heartless wretch; and when she told him her husband 
was dead, and she could not pay her rent, he said, with an oath, he 
would not have any one in his house who could not pay. After he 
had gone, she threw herself in the rocking-chair and wept; her little 
girl came to her and said: "Mamma, does not God answer prayer?" 
"Yes, my child." And the child wanted to put in practice what she 
had heard her mother preach. She said: " Then won't he take care 
of us if we ask him?" "I suppose he will." (She said "suppose," 
— you see her faith was not very strong.) " Then may I not go and 
ask him to take care of us?" " Yes, my child; you may if you want 
to." The lady told me of it the next day; and she said the child 
never looked so sweet to her as when she went into the room where 
her mother had taught her to pray. The door was open a little way, 
and she could see her; she put up her hands and her curls lay back 
from her face, and she said: "Oh, Father! you came and took away 
my dear papa; he was killed in the war; my mamma has no money 
to pay the landlord the rent, and he is going to turn us out doors. 
We will sit on the door-step and catch cold and die, unless you lend 
us a little house to live in." Then she went to her mother and said: 
"Jesus will take care of us because I have asked him." There is 



TRUST IN THE LORD. 315 

faith for you! Well, they did not have to pay any rent; a house 
was soon provided, and that widow and her children were taken care 
of. Oh, let us have child-like faith. That little girl down there has 
faith. She does not know where she will get her next pair of shoes, 
but she has faith that her mother will see that she has them. 

No man or woman who ever trusted in God was disappointed or 
ever will be. I once noticed a lady who sat down by the side of the 
pulpit; and every time I would look down her eyes were riveted upon 
me. She looked so intent, trying to catch every word, that one day 
I said to her, "My friend, are you a Christian?" "Oh, no," she said, 
" I have been seeking Christ these three years, but cannot find him/ 
I said, " There is some mistake about that;" and she answered, " Do 
you mean that I have not been seeking him?" "Well, I know he 
has been looking for you for twenty years." She asked, "What am 
I to do, then?" "Do! Do nothing; probably that is the trouble, 
that you have been trying to do." "But how am I to be saved ?'* 
she asked. " You are to believe on him, and stop trying." She 
scowled, and said: "Believe! believe! believe! I have heard that 
word until my head swims; everybody says it, and I am none the 
wiser." I said: "I will drop that word for another. The word be- 
lieve is used in the New Testament, and the word trust in the Old. 
I will say to you, trust the Lord to save your soul." " If I say I will 
trust him, will he save me ?" she asked. " If you really do trust him 
he will save you." She said: "I trust the Lord to save me; now I 
do not feel any different," — just so in one breath. I told her: "I 
think you have not been looking for Christ; you have been looking- 
for feeling. God does not tell you to feel; he tells you to trust 
him; and you are to let the feelings take care of themselves." 
"I have heard people say they felt happy when they became Chris- 
tians." "Well, wait till you become a Christian, and then 
you may talk about a Christian's experience; you must trust the 
Lord that he will keep you." She sat there five minutes, and then 
put out her hand to me, and said, "I trust the Lord Jesus Christ to 
save my soul now." That was all there was to it, no praying, no 
weeping. The next night I was preaching she was in front of me; 
and I could see eternity written on her face, and the light from fields 
of glory in her eyes. 

Oh, my friends, there is nothing to hinder your trusting him! If 
you do, when death shall come he won't be unwelcome; he won't 
terrify you. I went down the Tennessee river in war time with a 
boatload of wounded men, after the battle of Shiloh. Many were 
mortally wounded; they had taken the worst cases first. I said to 
those who were with me, "We must not let these men die without 
telling them of heaven." One young man was unconscious, and 
they said he could not live. I asked the physician if he could not 
restore him long enough to get a message for his mother; and he 



314 REPENTANCE. 

gave me brandy and water, which I fed to him. He was a most 
beautiful boy. After a while he opened his eyes, and looked around 
a little wild; and I placed my hand upon his brow, and said, " My 
boy, do you know where you are?" At last he said, "I am on my 
way home to mother." "Yes," I said, "you are; but the doctor tells 
me you cannot live." I asked him for a message to his mother. He 
said, "Tell my mother that I die trusting in Christ." He did not 
know me, whether I was a friend or an enemy. He added, " Tell 
my mother and sisters to be sure to meet me in heaven;" and in a 
few minutes he was unconscious, and in a few hours he died. They 
will meet in the morning — it is only a little while — for he died trust- 
ing in Christ. Oh, may that word sink deep into every heart here I 



REPENTANCE. 



"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; hut now commandeth all men every- 
where to repent. 1 " Acts 17 : 3U. 

I want to call your attention to a text you will find in the 17th 
chapter of Acts, 30th verse : " But now commandeth all men 
everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he 
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath or- 
dained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he 
hath raised him from the dead." You will see to-night that I have 
for my text a command, and not only a command, but it is a com- 
mand to all in this hall to-night. And now he commandeth all men 
everywhere to repent. Not only here in New York, but everywhere. 
I have had some fault found with me since I have been in New York, 
because I have not preached repentance. I want to tell you one 
thing; if you do not repent, you will never see the kingdom of God. 
There will be no unrepentant sinners in heaven. An unrepentant 
sinner to God cannot love him. If a man does not repent, there is 
no hope for him in the world to come. Now repentance is not a 
godly sorrow for sin. I find a great many in the inquiry-room who 
are mourning, because they have not got this godly sorrow for sin, 
that they have heard of. In other words, they are anxious to be an- 
xious. They think if they only had more repentance, more godly 
sorrow for sin, they could come to Christ. No one that is not a 
Christian has godly sorrow for sin. You must have it before you 



REPENTANCE. 315 

can be a Christian. Repentance is a change of mind. Repentance 
is turning right about. In the Old Testament it is, " Repent, re- 
pent, for why will ye die?" In the New Testament it is, "Repent 
and be born again." Some one said man was born, turned away 
from God, and he must repent and turn back to him before he can 
be received. When John the Baptist repented, the word of God 
came to him in the wilderness. It burst upon him like the flashing 
of a meteor. His cry was, " Repent, repent, for the kingdom of 
God is at hand." When Christ was baptized, he took up the wil- 
derness cry, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When 
he sent out the seventy disciples, two by two, he told them to go 
into all the towns and villages and proclaim this message: "Repent, 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." But they turned away from 
him; they rejected him; they took the Lord of glory and crucified 
him, for they wanted him to have his kingdom on earth. Then he 
said, as many as would receive him, he would set up his kingdom in 
their hearts, and that is what he is doing now, setting up his king- 
dom in your hearts. There is not a man nor woman here to-night 
but he wants to set up his kingdom in your heart. If you will re- 
pent of sin and come to God, he will set up his kingdom in your hearts 
this very night. 

I will tell you why you need to repent. Because you have false 
ideas of God. You cannot find an unconverted person in the world 
that has not a false idea of God. He thinks God is his worst enemy, 
and that the devil is his friend. Sinners are running away from their 
best friend in running away from God. Therefore you must change 
your mind about God before you repent. Instead of Satan being 
your friend and God being your enemy, just reverse your belief ; 
and, instead of following Satan and serving him, you want to turn 
right straight around to-night and take the Lord of Glory; and his 
kingdom will be set up in your hearts. A great many think they 
cannot repent because they have not got this sorrow that they talk 
about. They think they must be wrought up in a high state of feel- 
ing before they can repent. But feelings are not repentance. A 
great many persons feel; but their feelings drive them into remorse 
and despair. I thought of that at the Young Men's Association 
Hall meeting yesterday. They were talking among the inquirers, and 
one or two thought they did not feel enough. One of them ex- 
claimed, "I am lost; there is no hope for me;" and left the meeting. 
Her fear that she could not be saved gave her too much feeling. 
And that is the way Satan works. He makes you have too much 
feeling, or else not enough. All this is man's idea. With the com- 
mand for all men to repent comes the power. God is not unjust. 
He does not come and say to all men, "Repent;" and not give them 
the power to do it. You can turn to him and live, if you will. He 
sets before us life and death. We are free agents; we are to choose. 



316 REPENTANCE. 

If we will turn to God, we will live. If we refuse to turn to him 
and reject him, we must die. 

I want to warn you about this one thing — fear. Fear is not re- 
pentance. I do not have much hope of scaring men into the king- 
dom of God. If you could scare them in, they would be out again 
as quickly as you got them in. How many men I have met who 
professed religion, and thought they had true repentance, when some 
sudden accident happened — on the railroad, for instance, or out 
at sea. You know how men on shipboard will be converted. In 
fifteen minutes the whole crew will be down on thei^knees, crying 
to God. Fifteen minutes before they were cursing and blaspheming; 
but there came up a terrible gale, and they think the ship is going 
to sink, and all these men turn pious instantly. This is fear; this is 
not repentance. A great many men make professions on their dying 
beds; but when the danger of death no longer threatens, and they 
get well again, they get up and forget all about their conversions. 
That is fear; that is not what we want. Instead of waiting to be 
worked up to a certain pitch of alarm, we want cool, calm calculation. 
It is making up your mind that you will change company, that you 
will turn from sin and leave the world, and turn to God. And he 
will receive every one who dees so come to him. Any man can re- 
pent here to-night; and the Lord is willing to receive and save every 
one that will. If Nineveh repented, that wicked city, I do not know 
why New York cannot repent. I am sure if it does, the Lord God 
will have mercy. If a man truly repents and comes to God for mer- 
cy, he will get it. He delights in mercy; and he will have mercy 
upon every one who turns from his or her sins to him. 

But there are a good many that are not sincere. They do not 
really repent in their hearts. God can read the heart, and knows 
whether repentance is in the heart or in the head. It is with the 
heart that man must believe; for I may have sin in my heart, and 
make professions with my lips. I may believe in him with my head, 
but not in my heart. It is the heart God wants. For instance, take 
the son of David, take Absalom. You know after he murdered his 
brother he went off into a foreign country and was gone two years; 
and then they managed to get him back to Jerusalem. When he 
came back, the king refused to see him; but Absalom wanted to 
bring about a reconciliation. So he sent for Joab once or twice, 
but Joab would not come. So he set Joab's barn on fire one day, 
and Joab, hearing of it, came at once; and he said to Absalom, 
"Why, what did you do it for?" "Because I wanted you to come 
here, and I knew that would bring you. I want you to go to the 
king, my father, and tell him I am here. He has already refused to 
see me, but I want you to take word to him that I want him to come 
and examine me; and if he does not find any fault in me, I want 
him to receive me into court and into society again." Now that was 



REPENTANCE. 317 

not repentance. A good many come to God in just that way, saying: 
" Lord, 1 would have you examine me, and if you find no fault in 
me, take me." But there is no humility or repentance in that. And 
that father very foolishly forgave that son; he did not want forgive- 
ness. He did not even ask for it. There was no repentance in him. 
He never confessed that he had sinned, and asked for mercy; but he 
came and said, " If you can find no fault in me." So David rein- 
stated him, and the result was that Absalom drove him from his 
throne; and if God should let an unrepentant sinner enter heaven, 
there would be war there: he would dethrone the Almighty, if he 
could. There is one thing you cannot do, unrepentant sinner: you 
cannot go into the kingdom of God. You can come here; you can 
get into church; but you will never get into the kingdom of God 
without repentance. 

God is very merciful; he is full of love, and he can pardon me. 
Well, you can go on in that faith, in that delusion if you like; but 
God says that if you don't repent you must die. God is true ; he 
does not say that which is false. You can make light of it, young 
man or young woman, if you wish to, but the time is coming when, 
if you have not repented, there will not be much hope for you. You 
must be faithful; you must banish everything that is not good and 
holy. 

Talk about God being merciful, and pardoning a man, whether he 
wants to be pardoned or not ! A man must have a new heart, and 
know that he is a sinner, and seek for the love of God, before he will 
be pardoned. Suppose the Governor of a State — suppose the Gov- 
ernor of New York was so merciful and tender-hearted that he could 
not bear to have any one in prison. A man is accused of murder; he 
is brought to trial; he is convicted and sentenced to death. While 
being led to the scaffold, the Governor meets him with a full pardon. 
He lets him out, and not only lets him out, but also those imprisoned 
at Sing Sing and Albany — lets everybody out; cannot bear to have 
any one in prison; how long would he be Governor, do you suppose? 
Why, you could not live in this State if there was to be no punish- 
ment annexed to sin. Every one would be a law unto himself; and 
every and all kinds of wickedness would be alive and seething in this 
community. If these wicked men could not get along in society, 
how could unrepentant sinners get along in heaven? A man who 
does not like to repent, but loves his sin, to him heaven would be a 
hell; he wouldn't care about heaven at all. If you don't repent, then 
there is no hope for you. Not only that, but how can God forgive a 
man if he don't want to be forgiven? Suppose your child were to tell 
you a lie, and you were to tell him that you would forgive him, if he 
asked to be forgiven; then suppose he did not ask or care about it, 
how would you forgive him? David fell lower than (Jain. The for- 
mer not only committed murder, but also adultery. But Cain did 



318 REPENTANCE. 

not ask to be forgiven, and David did; and he was forgiven. That 
is the great difference between them. You cannot find a place in 
the Bible that states that Cain asked to be forgiven. If he had, God 
would have forgiven him. God is willing to forgive every one who 
truly and honestly and sincerely wants to repent and lead a new life. 
The only time that God is represented as running is in the parable 
of the Prodigal Son. He is represented as running to receive the 
repentant sinner. "There is joy in heaven over one sinner that re- 
penteth," we are told. But a man must repent before he is forgiven. 
If we do not repent, then the forgiveness would be of no use, as we 
would go right back again to our sins. It would be a false peace — 
a reconciliation that would not last. When a man turns against 
sin — against the world — then God is ready to forgive him. I 
never knew a man who has truly repented of his sin and turned 
away from it, that ever desired to go back to it. He may fall, it is 
true; but he will rise again. Satan may have him down, but he can't 
keep him down. He may wander off into the world away from the 
fold; but the world cannot keep him. There are a great many men 
who think that when they leave the world and become Christians that 
they will be in sorrow. Did you ever see a man sorry that turned to 
God? I never did. You may imagine the Prodigal sitting there op- 
posite to the old man; all at once tears begin to trickle down the 
young man's cheek. "What is the matter, my son?" says his father. 
"Oh! I was afraid I should go back into that foreign land again." 
"But you cannot conceive of such an idea, my boy." Of course, there 
was no danger of his going again to the husks and the hard, half- 
starved life he had then just left. So if you come to your father and 
say, "Father, I have sinned;" and if you truly repent and turn your 
back upon sin and the world and are reconciled to God, you won't 
want to go back again to the swine and the evils of your former life. 
And I want to call your attention to this, that God commands all 
men now to repent; right here, right now, this dark and stormy 
night. But Satan comes along and whispers so you, " Put it off. 
Yes, defer it; there is plenty of time yet; don't be in a hurry about 
it." He knows if he can get you to put it off till to-morrow, that 
to-morrow never comes. And why will men put off this repentance 
until to-morrow, and day after day, in the way they do? Is it be- 
cause they love sin so much? Is it because they want to have their 
own way? Why, it is very much like Pharaoh, when he had the 
plague of the frogs. He could not take a step but that he put his 
foot down on a frog. There were frogs in his bed-room, in his sitting- 
room. They got into his kneading- troughs. Cut a loaf of bread, and 
a frog would be found in it. It was frog, frog, frog. At last it 
annoyed him so he was compelled to send for Moses. And Moses 
said to him, When shall I ask the Lord to take them away? I re- 
member well the first time I read that. I of course thought that Pha- 



REPENTANCE. 319 

raoh, in answer to that question, would have said, " Now, now," with 
all his might, and with all the earnestness of which he was capable. 
Did he say that? Why, no; he said, " To-morrow." He wanted 
the frogs all night. You laugh at that. Yet you want to hold on to 
your sins just as long as you are able. Well, are these sins so sweet 
that you like them so? Like them, then, if you want to; but you 
hear what God says — he commands you to repent and leave them. 

Many of you would be shocked if I were to accuse you of swear- 
ing. Yet this command is as binding as that which prohibits the 
taking of God's name in vain. How can you say there is time enough 
to repent? How long do you know you are alive? Is it a time to 
repent in your dying hour? Are there many that truly repent then? 
I believe that God can have mercy in the dying hour and save 
people and I know that many are saved then but where one is saved, 
there are hundreds that go into the grave without God and without 
hope. They defer it too long; they put it off until it is too late. It 
is fear that seizes them then. The truth is that a good many make 
strong intentions when they are sick; but when they get well they go 
back at once to their old professions, and deny the Lord of Glory, 
and go straight to their besetting sins. So- it was not their re- 
pentance, but alarm. Death comes and looks them in the face and 
they get alarmed; they are afraid to meet death; they get frightened. 
They make many vows, and many professions to lead a new and 
godly life; but when they get well, all these good intentions pass 
away like a morning cloud. I believe I am talking to some to-night 
who, when God had chastened them severely, promised and vowed 
that should they get well they would serve him, and love him, and 
honor him, and obey him, and follow him. Yet here they are this 
very night denying him, and slighting him, and scorning him, and 
fighting against him. They don't turn to him with all their heart. 

I tell you, my friends, that ninety-nine out of every hundred die 
unexpectedly. Death is an unexpected visitor; he comes upon them 
suddenly and yet they are not ready. How many say : "I will put 
it off a little longer, there is time enough yet; and if I should become 
sick, I can repent on my dying bed." Will you offer God your 
wasted life? Is that the true treatment? Is that what God should 
expect from us? Is it noble? Is it manly? Is it right for us just to go 
on serving Satan, living for ourselves and the world, and just turn 
our backs upon him? The minute is coming when we have crossed 
the line. Take the pitiful steamer, the Atlantic, that was wrecked 
off the coast of Newfoundland three years ago, this month. There it 
was in the fog; it had been in the fog three days, and just plying along 
toward the shore and toward the rocks. There was just one moment 
when they could have stopped and reversed their engines, and saved 
the steamer; and there was one moment when it was too late. There 
was one moment when it crossed the line, and five hundred souls 



3^(J REPENTANCE. 

went down to a watery grave. There is a crisis in every man's life 
when he can stop. You can just stop to-night, and say : "By the 
grace of God, I will stop to-night, and I will just turn my face to- 
ward God." There isn't anything to hinder you; you can to-night 
just change your company; leave the world and join God's people. 
But some people say, "I don't know what it is to repent." Let 
me give an illustration. I am not a politician; but in this country 
we have two parties. Supposing I belong to the Republican party, 
and there is an election coming on next Monday, and I have been a 
Republican for twenty years; and I am thoroughly convinced to- 
night that if the Republican party succeeds it will be ruin to the coun- 
try. I am very patriotic and love my country; and I believe if the Dem- 
ocratic party succeeds it will be salvation to the country. How long 
does it take me to turn to the other party? It doesn't take me a 
minute; and I not only turn myself, but I try to induce every man 
I know to do the same thing. You are on the wrong side of the 
question; you can't have two masters; you can't be for God and 
mammon; you can't be for God and the devil, at the same time. 
Whose side are you on to-night, young man? Who claims you to- 
night? That young man says, "Jesus." Thank God for that. If 
you are on the wrong one, rise like a man and say, "By the grace of 
God, I will go over on the Lord's side." You know that God has 
doomed this world to destruction; and if you stay in the world, it 
is sure ruin to you. You know if you belong to the other party, the 
Democrats would be glad to see you, and just so with the Repub- 
licans — don't think that they will give you so warm a welcome as 
the Lord. That is repentance. Right about face. You have been 
on the devil's side long enough; come right out to-night, and come 
on to the Lord's side. Suppose I am to go down to Boston to-night; 
and I go down to the Union depot and say to a man I see there, 
"Can you tell me is this train going to Boston?" and the man says, 
"Yes;" and I go and get on board the train. And Mr. Dodge comes 
right along and says, "Where are you going?" I say, " I am going 
to Boston;" and Mr. Dodge says: "Well, you are on the wrong 
train; that train is going to Albany." " But Mr. Dodge, I am quite 
sure I am right; I asked a railroad man here, and he told me this 
was the train." And Mr. Dodge says: " Moody, I know all about 
these trains; I have lived here forty years, and go up and down on 
these trains every day;" and at last Mr. Dodge convinces me I am 
on the wrong train. That is conviction, not conversion. But if I 
don't remain on that train, but just get into the other train, that is 
repentance. Oh, to-night, say that you will, just by the grace of God, 
come right over on the Lord's side, and turn your face toward God, 
and he will bless you. Now it is the hardest thing for a man to be- 
come a Christian, and it is the easiest. You may think that is a 
pirndox; very hard until he makes up his mind, and very easy when 



REPENTANCE. 321 

he has made up his mind. I have a little nephew, who took a Bible 
he saw lying on the table and threw it on the floor. His mother said 
to him, "Go and pick up uncle's Bible." He said he didn't want to. 
His mother said: "I didn't ask you whether you wanted to or not; 
go and pick it up." Then the little fellow said, u I won't." His 
mother said, "Why, Charlie, who taught you that naughty word?" 
when she found out that he not only knew what it meant, but he 
meant every word me said. The mother says: "Charlie, I never 
heard you talk so before. If you don't go and pick up uncle's Bi- 
ble, I shall punish you." And the little fellow says, "I won't do it." 
She told him again, if he didn't pick up the Bible she would punish 
him, and he would have to pick it up too. Then he said he couldn't. 
I suppose he thought he couldn't; he didn't want to. That is the 
trouble with men; they don't want to come. Christ says, "Ye will 
not come unto me that ye might have life." It is not because men 
can't come to God; it is because they won't. The little fellow 
looked at it as though he would like to do it, but he couldn't. At 
last he just got down on the floor and got both his arms around the 
book and tried, and said he couldn't. Now the mother says: "Char- 
He, do you pick up that book or I shall punish you, and you will 
have to pick it up too." I felt very much interested; for I knew if 
she didn't break his will, he would break her heart eventually. At 
last she broke the little fellow's will; and the minute his will was 
broke, he picked up the book just as easy as that. 

When a man makes up his mind, he will accept God just as easy. 
God commands you to-day to repent. Bear in mind that God com- 
mands you to repent. Don't flatter yourselves you have never 
broken God's commandments. If you go out of that door without 
turning to him, you have done so; because here is a commandment 
direct from God. God commands all men now everywhere to re- 
pent; because he has appointed a day when he will judge the world 
in righteousness. If you go on to the bar of God without repent- 
ance and without turning from sin, sinner, there will be no hope for 
you. 

I felt very much interested the other night at the young men's 
meeting. A young man said he left London and got into this city 
three weeks ago. His mother was a very earnest Christian, had 
been praying for him; and he always told her that he didn't want 
her to talk with him about Christianity, for he had no desire to be- 
come a Christian. He left home to get rid of her entreaties. As he 
was leaving home, his mother said to him: "Bear in mind that my 
prayers will follow you, and you will find God in America." I sup- 
pose the young man was like the young man in the Scriptures, who, 
when his father told him to go into his vineyard and work, said he 
wouldn't go, and afterwards changed his mind and went. And this 
vouno- man bejjan to repent, and when he got into New York he left 
21 



322 REPENTANCE. 

the boat and came right up to the Hippodrome, and says he found 
God waiting for him right here. He just repented, and just received 
his mother's God. Sinner, God is waiting for you. Are you willing 
to come to him? Is there any one who will repent and will return 
to God? 

A man got up one morning and saw the sun shining into his room, 
and lifted up his heart to God and said: " Let thy love shine into 
my heart;" and he found God. Why? Because he turned his face 
towards the Sun of Righteousness. The trouble is, you have got 
your back towards God; you are running away from him. Ask for 
light, and it will come. God will never refuse you. Oh, to-night 
be wise — this dark, rainy, stormy night, repent of your sins and turn 
to God. Let us ask God to-night to turn our souls to him. Now, 
if you have really a desire for salvation, you can find it, just as that 
Englishman found it. God has been here all through the meeting, 
waiting with his arms stretched out, ready to welcome you. 

A young man related this experience to me: " When my father 
died, my mother became more anxious than ever about my salvation. 
Sometimes she came and put her arms around me and wept over me ;. 
and I would push her away, and say there was time enough. I heard 
one night a voice in my mother's chamber, crying to God for her 
boy, ' God! save my boy.' At last I could not stand it any longer. 
I made up my mind I would not become a Christian, and I ran away. 
It was a long time before I heard from that mother, except indirect- 
ly; for she did not know where I was. I did not want her to know, 
because I knew she would come for me if she knew. After a while 
I heard that my mother was sick, and I thought I would go to her. 
On my way from the station to my home, I had to pass the cemetery. 
I stopped to take a look at my father's grave. It was a moonlight 
night, and the graves were very distinct; but by the side of my fa- 
ther's grave was a fresh one. The sod was loose as if only laid that 
day. Then I knew I had lost my mother. The thought struck me, 
4 Who will pray for me, now that my mother and father are gone?' I 
passed that sad night by their graves; and though I feel that God 
has answered my prayers and forgiven my sin, I never can forgive 
myself for bringing sorrow to my mother's heart." 

Young man, you can repent to-night, and go home and cheer your 
mother's heart by turning to God. 



KING SAUL. 

" Nevertheless, the people refueed to obey the voice of Samuel." 1st Samuel 8 : 19. 

I find in this 19th verse of the 8th chapter of 1st Samuel: "Never- 
theless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel" — or you 
might say the voice of God, for God is speaking through Samuel — 
" and they said, We will have a king over us." I want to call your 
attention to this disobedience; and the consequence. For between 
four hundred and five hundred years God had been their King; and 
when they obeyed his voice and did what he told them to do, none 
of the nations were able to stand before them. They had never been 
degraded while they were walking in God's sight and obeying his 
voice; but now they got tired of God. They wanted to cast off his 
yoke. They wanted a king, like the nations around them had, who 
might lead their armies, and make them as imposing and splendid 
as the nations around them were. When God brought them into that 
land, he told them they should not have chariots of iron, and should 
not be trusting in horsemen, and in great armies; but he would 
be their defense; he would be their shield; he would protect them, 
if they would only look to him and trust him. But no. They have 
their eyes on the nations around them; and they come to the old 
prophet Samuel, who has grown very old and is about to retire from 
office; and they said, "We want a king." And Samuel was very 
much displeased, heart-broken; and he took his trouble to the Lord, 
as we all of us ought always to do; and the Lord says, "Well, now, 
Samuel, it is not you that they have rejected, but me. Don't take 
it so to heart, but protest solemnly against it. Tell them the conse- 
quences; and then, if they insist upon it, I will give them a king." 
He said this, very often, as mothers deal with their children. They 
let them have something, that they know will bring them into .sor- 
row, just to show them how much better it would have been for them 
if they had obeyed without a murmur; but then, there are very few 
of us that can learn by other men's experiences, and we want to try 
our own way; and God permits us, just to show how much better it 
is to take God's way than our own. 

Now, the Lord told Samuel he would send a man there whom he 
should anoint king; and it seems that a man in the tribe of Benjamin, 
by the name of Kish, lost his asses, and he sent one of his sons to 
hunt them up. Little did he know as he left home where he was 
going to. He hunted for the asses two or three days, but was un- 
successful; and as he came near Raman his servant suggested that 
323 



324 KING SAUL. 

they should go up and see the seer or prophet, and he could tell them 
where to go. Now, the Lord had told Samuel, the day before Saul 
came, this was to be the man whom he should anoint to be captain 
over Israel. What was Saul's surprise when the seer met him on 
the way, took him into his house, made him stay over night, and then 
took him up on the roof of his house and told him what the Lord was 
going to do with him. Saul seems to have been full of humility, for 
he told Samuel that he belonged to the smallest of the tribes of Is- 
rael, and did not think that he was worthy; but God chose him, and 
the next morning when he left the town the prophet went with him 
to the outskirts of the town, and said to him, " Let your servant go 
on before you;" and after he had passed on and gone out of sight, 
Samuel anointed Saul king, and then told him what would take 
place on his way home, and where he would find his animals. And 
it all came to pass as he h id prophesied. Saul went home and went 
about his work as usual, taking care of his father's sheep. But one 
day a messenger came into the town in great haste, bringing the 
startling tidings that the enemy had besieged a city, and the peo- 
ple had offered to surrender and become servants to the enemy, if 
they would only just spare their lives; and the commander of the 
besieging army said he would grant the request on condition that he 
might tear out their right eyes, and the elders of Jabesh said, " Give 
us seven days and we will decide." If the inhabitants of the city 
could not get help within seven days, they would have to have 
their right eyes dug out. And the people lifted up their voices and 
wept. And Saul came in from the field, and when they told him the 
tidings, the Spirit of God came upon him, and he was greatly an- 
gered. And he took a yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces, and 
sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of mes- 
sengers, saying, " Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after 
Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen;" and the fear of the Lord 
came upon the people, and inside of three days Saul had three hun- 
dred and thirty thousand people; and in the night, about daylight, 
he moved upon the enemy, and fought them until midday with such 
vigor, that there were no two of them left together; and thus he 
routed the whole army and saved the city, and won his way to the 
hearts of the people. 

You know there is nothing like success. He had been suc- 
cessful, and had already been proclaimed at Mizpeh, king; for Sam- 
uel had brought the people up to Mizpeh, and they had cast lots, and 
it had fallen upon the tribe of Benjamin and upon the house of Kish. 
And now he had had a successful battle, and everything looked very 
bright and hopeful for him and his people. Why, when they raised 
the cry at Mizpeh, "God save the king!" it looked as if everything 
was going to be in their favor. Saul was a head and shoulders above 
all men in Mizpeh; and they said : "We have got a fine-looking king. 



KING SAUL, 325 

No nation around us has got a man like him." He was a grand man 
to look at. Men like to walk by sight, instead of by faith. They 
had got just the man, and they felt he was the one to meet the giants 
coming out against them; and they shouted for him, and the cry has 
been heard ever since in the earth, " God save the king." That was 
the first time that cry was ever heard, when they proclaimed Saul as 
king. 

But now the trial comes. The next thing we hear is that the ene- 
mies are gathering again. After the defeat at Jabesh-Gilead, they 
called together their armies and nations. There were thirty thou- 
sand chariots of iron and six thousand horsemen, and the rank and 
file were like the sands of the sea-shore — a great multitude. And 
the heart of Saul began to sink within him, and he waited at Gilgal 
for Samuel to come, and the army began to be discontented; and 
instead of looking to God and trusting him — for he wanted them 
to put their trust in him — Saul gets a little discouraged and breaks 
the law of God. The law of God was that no man should offer sac- 
rifices but those that were appointed. Saul had no right to do it, 
but he took that position himself, and began to offer sacrifices; and 
his friend Samuel, than whom no man ever had a purer, truer friend, 
said to him: "You have done very foolishly. Now your kingdom is 
departed from you, and it shall not be maintained. You have dis- 
obeyed the voice of God." The old saying is, " Like priest, like peo- 
ple." The people would not obey the voice of God. Samuel deals 
faithfully with him, and tells him the consequences. Saul cries, "My 
army is leaving me and is becoming demoralized." And Samuel 
says, "You ought to obey God and let the consequences be what they 
will." 

And now it came to pass that Jonathan, Saul's son, said to his 
armor-bearer: "Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these un- 
circumcised; it may be that the Lord will work for us, for he can save 
by many or by few." How the faith of Jonathan shines out here! 
He feels that, with the help of the Lord, he can save the whole army. 
Would to God we had a few Jonathans right here in New York! 
" Now," says he, "we will just go up there ; and if they ask us to come 
right into camp, we will take it as a sign that God is with us. And 
if they say, ' Stand where you are,' we will know the Lord is not with 
us." And when they had climbed up the steep rocks, the Philistines 
saw them and shouted, "Behold the Hebrews come out of their holes 
where they had hid themselves." And they said to Jonathan and his 
armor-bearer, "Come over to us." And Jonathan said, "God is with 
us; he has given us the land." And he and his armor-bearer went 
up and slew the people, and in that first slaughter were about twenty 
men within half an acre, and the people were frightened and trembled; 
and the watchmen of Saul beheld the multitude melting away like 
the snow upon a side hill, and Saul, who was afar off, began to inquire, 



32G KING SAUL. 

"Who has gone out from us?" And they numbered the people, and 
found out that Jonathan and his armor-bearer were gonf\ Saul had 
given a rash order that no one should eat until he had destroyed his 
enemies; but Jonathan didn't know anything of this. After the 
slaughter, when all the people had joined in the rout of the Philis- 
tines — there are a great many men who are willing when the battle 
goes against our enemies to join in pursuit of them, and then, after 
the work is done, say, "Didn't we do good work?" but they hide 
themselves away in the caves and holes, and dare not meet the enemy 
until some braver man has come to the front and done the work- 
after, I say, all the people had joined in the pursuit, they came to a 
wood, and there was honey upon the ground, but no one dared eat 
except Jonathan, who knew not of his father's order. It is decreed that 
poor Jonathan must be slain. He has been disobedient and must 
die. Because Saul had disobeyed the Lord he did not die; but be- 
cause Jonathan had disobeyed his father, he must die. But the army 
said, " We will not let him be put to death." And they took the 
matter out of the king's hands, and Jonathan was spared. 

But the Lord gives Saul another chance, and sends him to destroy 
the Amalekites, and tells him through Samuel not to spare a single 
man, woman, child or beast. But Saul slew all of the Amalekites 
except the king and the best of the sheep and the oxen. And Sam- 
uel comes out and Saul says, " I have obeyed the Lord." He had a 
guilty conscience, and was afraid Samuel would reprove him. "Ah!" 
says the old prophet, "what is the meaning of these cattle that I hear 
lowing, these sheep that I hear bleating? Did not God tell you to 
destroy them?" *' Yes," says the guilty Saul; " but I saved the best 
of the cattle to sacrifice to the Lord." Is it sacrifices that the Lord 
wants, or obedience? That is the spirit of the present day. People 
say: "Oh, I know it is not just exactly right, still a man must be 
sharp to get along;" and if they get money somewhat dishonestly, and 
afterwards endow colleges and build churches with it, they think it 
is good enough. They think the Lord will accept it, if made dishonest- 
ly; that he will overlook it. Will he? See if he will. If we had 
not been disobedient, there would be no need of sacrifices. 

Now Samuel says to Saul: "To obey is better than to sacrifice. 
What God wants is obedience, and you have disobeyed him again. 
Now, just listen, and I will tell you what God told me this night. 
God told me he has taken the kingdom from you, and will give it to 
your neighbor, who is better than you are." And as Samuel turned 
to go away, Saul seized the mantle of Samuel, and it rent; and 
Samuel said to him, "Your kingdom has been rent from you as you 
have rent my mantle." And they separated and never met after 
that. A sad parting, for a truer friend than Samuel no man ever 
had. Samuel wept over him as a father over his son, for he loved 
Saul. But Saul tried to have Samuel stay and honor him before the 



KING SAUL. 327 

people, like many of the present day, who care for the applause of the 
world rather than the approval of God. But Samuel went back to 
Ramah, and left him. 

But now the enemy comes back again stronger than ever, thou- 
sands upon thousands, a great multitude, and the hour of battle comes 
on. There on that hill are the armies of the Philistines, and 
here on this are the thousands of Saul; and at last a giant 
warrior comes out from the camp of the Philistines and cries to 
Saul's army: "Just select one man to come out and fight me; and if 
he will overcome me we will all be your servants." And he defies 
them day after day; and there is not a man in all that camp that dare 
meet the giant of Gath. They were all frightened, and the king 
trembled from head to foot. As he came out in the morning, I think I 
can see them looking so startled and saying: " Look! There he comes 
again." So he defies them again and again — " Show me a man that 
will dare to meet me." And so every morning, day after day, day 
after day, for forty days, he came out two or three times a day, and 
each army was afraid of the other, not daring to open fire. Just then 
up came a young stripling. (Some one has said he was the first dele- 
gate to the Christian Commission.) He had been sent up from the 
country round by his mother, to see how his brothers were getting 
on in the king's encampment. I suppose the mother made up some 
nice things for them to eat, some nice cakes, perhaps, and jelly. I 
can see him coming up; perhaps there was a servant along, and up 
they came on their asses. Just as they came into camp, out came 
the giant again, and defied them. The young man looks at him, 
and then asks: "What, what does that man say? Hark!" He 
hears the giant defy Israel, God's anointed, God's own people. His 
blood begins to tingle in his veins. He goes into camp and says to 
his brothers: "What does that mean? Why do not some of you go 
out to meet him?" "Why," they said, "you don't know much 
about fighting, or you would not talk of such a thing in that way." 
Said he, "I will go myself, then." " It's a nice thing for you to say 
you'll go. Why, one look at him will make you run faster than you 
ever ran in your life." They began to make sport of him, and mock 
him. He said, " If there is no one else to go, I will go." But they 
only mocked him. At last some one said to the king: "There is 
some one in camp who offers to go and meet the giant of Gath." 
And the king said, " Go bring him." And when the king saw 
David his heart sank within him at once. What could he do? He 
had not been used to using a sword. He did not know anything 
about it. The king said to him, "You are not able." He looked at 
David. He saw that he knew nothing of the use of weapons in bat- 
tle. Said David: "I think I would like to meet him. A lion and a 
bear got into my father's fold one night, and I killed .them both; and 
I believe that God will be able to deliver me from the giant, as he 



328 



KING SAUL. 



did from the lion and the bear." Some one has said there were 
thousands of men in that camp who knew that God could use them; 
but David was the only one there who believed that God would use 
him. Said David, " Now I will go." So they took him and began 
to dress him for the fight. They began to put armor upon him, and 
a shield and a helmet. But in a few minutes it began to act upon 
him. He began to feel uncomfortable in it, and to twist himself and 
make wry faces, and at last he said, " I cannot fight in this armor." 
He was like a little boy in his grandfather's overcoat. It did not fit 
him at all. He said, " I have not proved it. I have proved the God 
of Israel. I have not proved this armor." It was like the way of 
the world. A great many are anxious to work in Saul's armor. If 
he had gone out in this armor and conquered, they would have said 
it was Saul's armor that did it. Then he said: "Let me take my 
sling. I am used to that." "What," they exclaimed; "A sling to 
meet the giant of Gath! Why, he has a helmet, and a sword, and 
a shield, and an armor-bearer!" But David said, "Well, I will 
only take my sling." I can imagine how they made all manner of 
sport of him. But they were driven to extremes, and must have 
some one; and so they let him go. Even his brothers must have 
thought he would surely be brought back dead. ■ 

So he went to the brook, and he picked up five smooth stones out 
of the brook. Oh, my friends, God uses the weak thing; God uses 
the little thing! You and I would have wanted some good big rocks 
to have slung at him; but David got a few little smooth stones, and 
went to meet his enemy. The giant came out full of indignation 
and wrath, saying, " Am I to take the consent of this man to meet 
me?" David said to him: "You come with a helmet, and a shield, 
and an armor-bearer. I come in the name of the God of Israel." 
So if we come in the name of God will all giants fall. So he puts 
one hand behind him and raises the other right up and throws his 
sling, and the giant falls dead; and then he rushed right up to him 
and took his sword from him, and cut off his head, and with the sword 
and the giant's head in his hand, went forward toward the king. 
Then Saul called to his cheering army, " Make haste, rush upon them!" 
And it was not long before the whole camp of the Philistines were 
falling before their enemy. 

So God used the man who was willing to be used. He used the 
man that had faith to believe that God would use him. But soon 
Saul began to grow jealous of David. It might have been that the 
fires of envy were kindled in Saul's soul by David's success imme- 
diately; but first Saul wanted to show him off, that he had a man 
among his subjects who could accomplish what David could. So 
immediately after their success, they began to be happy and to sing; 
and at first they never thought about jealous} 7 ". But soon the fire 
began to burn in Saul's pulses. He began to plan how he could put 



KING SAUL. 329 

David to death, and get him out of the way. Oh, what a miserable 
enemy we all have in jealousy! How it does mar the work of sal- 
vation! It is one of the worst enemies of God and man. Well, 
three times God put Saul into the hands of David. Once when he 
was asleep in the cave, and David was left there in the cave: but he- 
would not lift his hand against God's anointed. But at last he drove 
him off into the wilderness, and finally he drove him out of his king 
dom; and he went off into a foreign land. Samuel also died, and 
they buried him at Ramah. We are not told that Saul was there at 
his funeral. The enemy at last came again, as soon as they got 
strength after their defeat. The news came to Saul that the Philis- 
tines were marching upon his country. He brought out his own 
army again, and we see them there at Gilboa. Saul's kingdom now 
is tottering. He is full of remorse and despair. God has left him; 
Samuel has died; David is gone. The noble Jonathan alone stands 
by him. At that last battle, he had three hundred thousand men at 
Gilboa. Only a few years before he had three hundred men, who 
were enough then. Now, notwithstanding his three hundred thou- 
sand men, he is full of fear; and so are they. What are even three 
hundred thousand, full of fear and cowardice? The church has 
many who are full of fear and despondency, and they cannot work; 
God cannot use them. 

Saul cannot keep the fight off any longer. God has left him. So 
he says to the two men near him, " Go, take me to some medium, 
some witch — the witch of Endor." And they took him off down to 
Endor. How are the mighty fallen! One who had had Samuel and 
David for his counselors went to consult an old witch- — an old 
medium! In the day when he took the advice of Samuel, he once 
had all these witches burned; but now he said, " Find me one." So 
he was led by some one away to Endor. He wanted Samuel brought 
before him. Yes, the time is coming when you who make light of 
the counsel of a loved friend, of a loved mother or a loved father — 
the time will come when you will cry: " Bring me my mother! Oh,. 
that I could hear her counsel once more! Would that I had taken 
her advice!" That was the cry of Saul," "Would to God I had 
never left Samuel, would to God I had obeyed!" So he said to that 
medium, " Bring me up Samuel." But Samuel was buried sixty miles 
away. Some persons think that at that time Samuel was brought 
before him ; but I do not believe God would permit an old witch to 
bring a man like Samuel anywhere. A man came to me some time 
ago and said: " I want to know if you would not like to go to a place 
where I go, and see them materialize these spirits? If you go there 
you can see your father and shake hands with him." I said, No; 
chat I would as soon put my hand in the fire. " In the last day shall 
come spirits, spirits from hell." 1 believe we are there to-day. I be- 
lieve they would deceive the very elect, if they could. Thank God, 



330 KING SAUL. 

v?e have the Holy Spirit for our guide and comforter. I never saw 
a man yet who believed in these things who was not an infidel, and 
who did not talk against the Bible. They come to see us, and want 
to know if we want our departed ones brought up. Let our friends 
rest with Jesus. Let us not think they are sleeping in the grave. 
God permits them to see something that I do not see. They will 
not be terrified and alarmed by being brought back here. God un- 
doubtedly spoke to Saul there and told him of his doom — that he 
would not live twenty-four hours; that the next night he too would 
be in the arms of death. Then they tried to get him to eat. He 
had not eaten anything for many hours. After they had coaxed him 
for some time, he sat down upon the witch's bed and ate. Think of 
Saul, a friend of Samuel, taking his last supper in such a miserable 
place! Afc last the king arose and said, "We must go back." See 
him as he climbs the mountain side of Gilboa. His hour has almost 
come; only a few more hours, and he will be in another world. Oh, 
that he had cried to God that night to save his soul. But he does 
not say one word. He can, perhaps, as he goes on, see the enemy's 
fires burning on yon mountain side, while he steals back to his army. 
At last the battle commences, and the enemy prevail. It is not long 
before the whole Israelitish army is routed. They are beaten. When 
Saul saw there was no hope of saving his crown and he must perish, 
fearing that his enemies would take him alive, and perhaps put him 
into some prison to die, he asked his armor-bearer to kill him; but 
the armor-bearer would not. He took his own sword and fell upon 
it, and died. Let us learn a lesson from Saul. Let us obey God. 
* £ To obey God is better than sacrifice." It is obedience that God 
wants. You may ask, "What may I do to obey God?" You are 
just to believe on his Son and be saved. Will you obey him to-day? 



WALKING WITH GOD. 

" For even hereunto were ye called ; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ex- 
ample, that we should follow his steps: who did not sin, neither was guile found in hia 
mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again: when he suffered, he threatened not; 
but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.' ' Peter 2: 21-23. 

My subject this evening is walking with God. For six thousand 
years God has been trying to win men back into his company, that 
they might walk with him. We would be saved from many a dark 
hour, if we were only willing to walk with God; if we would only 
just let him take us by the hand, and lead us through this dark 
world. He would not lead us into darkness; He would not lead us 
into trouble and sorrow; he would lead us into the light. He sent his 
Son down here to tell us how to walk. In the 1st epistle of Peter, 
2d chapter, 21st, 22d and 23d verses, it says: " For even hereunto 
were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ex- 
ample, that ye should follow in his stead; who did no sin, neither 
was guile found in his mouth, and when he was reviled, reviled not 
again. When he suffered, he threatened jiot, but committed him- 
self to him that judgeth righteously." 

What God wants is for us to follow in his footsteps. I have been 
told that there are some men out on the frontier, in the wilds of 
America, who in going through the Rocky Mountains will find an 
Indian trail where there is only one footprint, as if only one man 
had gone over the mountains; and I am told by those who know a 
good deal about these Indians, that the chief goes before, and all the 
rest of the tribe follow him and put their foot into his footsteps. 
That is what our Chief wants us to do. He has passed through the 
heavens and gone up on high, and wants us to follow. Whenever 
we are tempted, if we would just ask the question: "I wonder if 
Jesus would do it if he were here?" and be willing to take him as 
our guide, what a help it would be! I am talking now to God's 
people — to Christians; for no man would have any desire to walk 
with God until he is a Christian. You must be a subject of the 
kingdom of God before you will have any desire to follow the King. 
Will you turn to the 26th chapter of Leviticus — " Ye shall keep my 
Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. If ye walk 
in my statutes and do them, then will I give you rain in due season, 
and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall 
yield their fruit." And so he goes on and tells how he will bless 
them; and then again in the 12th verse: "And I will walk among 
you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." If God is 
331 



332 WALKING WITH GOD. 

only walking with us, what power we have got! We have nothing 
to fear then. We have nothing to fear, literally nothing, because 
God with all his influence is walking with us. We can walk through 
into glory; that is what he has promised us we may do. But he 
gives us a warning in the same chapter and the 27th verse: "And if 
you will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto 
me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, 
will chastise you seven times for your sins." "I will walk contrary 
to you." What is it makes all the trouble in New York? Because 
men are walking contrary to God. All the trouble in this world 
comes from that. He says: "If you will keep my statutes, I will 
walk with you." As long as God was walking with Israel, they had 
power and success; but they did not want him; they cast him out; 
they wanted a king like the nations round about. What is the 
result? How quickly they got into trouble, and God had to bring a 
deliverer, and send David. That has been the experience of men 
for thousands of years. The moment a man goes away from God 
and breaks away from his influence, he gets into trouble. I believe 
God has his hand upon this nation now, because they have walked 
contrary to him. During the past few years how he has blessed this 
nation! (I am talking now of his own children.) How many of 
them have prospered abundantly! But they have not made good 
use of their prosperity, and God has taken it away from them. I do 
not think he has got through yet. The hand of God seems to be 
upon the nation, and he is working contrary to us now. Most of us 
cannot stand prosperity. The moment God begins to prosper us, 
we forget all about him, and are "carried away by the temptations of 
the world. In the 6th chapter of Jeremiah, 16th verse: "Thus saith 
the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and seek, and ask for the old paths, 
where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for 
your souls." There is where you get rest, in the old path. Men 
want everything different from the old way; they want some new 
Bible; they want some new Tophet, some new church, something 
that will tickle their ears and tell them there is no God and no 
heaven and no hell. That is the trouble. They do not want the 
good old gospel; they do not want the God of the Hebrews; they 
do not want the God of this Bible. Their cry is, " Give us some 
new gospel; give us some new way." 

Every generation for the last six thousand years has had its class 
of men that wanted some way besides God's way. He says: "Ask 
for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye 
shall find rest for your souls." If you want to find people that have 
rest, you will see they have found it in the old way. No one ever 
found it in the " broad church," as some call it. But here they will 
not hearken. They say, " We will not hearken." What is the re- 
sult? The foreign nations came and conquered them, and took their 









WALKING WITH GOD. 333 

princes from them, and all their noblemen, and took them off to 
Babylon, and kept them seventy years in slavery; and they hung 
their harps on the willows, for they could not play in a foreign land. 
If you say, " We will not walk in the old way," then God will walk 
contrary to you. 

It is one of the most astonishing things to me to see how people 
can go on, with their open Bible in their hands, and expect to gain 
anything by walking contrary to God. We do not gain anything 
by turning away from the God of our fathers. It is better to walk 
alone with God than to go with the whole world. The whole world 
has got to be punished if it goes contrary to God. Turning a mo- 
ment into the New Testament, in Second Tessalonians, 3d chapter, 
6th verse, I read: "Now we command you, brethren, in the name 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every 
brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he 
received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us; 
for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you." Then turn 
over to Second Corinthians, 6th chapter, and 14th verse: "Be ye not 
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship 
hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath 
light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? 
or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what 
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the tem- 
ple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and 
walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. 
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith 
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 
and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, 
saith the Lord Almighty." 

Now, if that is not clear, nothing is. We are then told what to 
do, and that if we are to keep company with God we have to be sep- 
arate from the world. I do not know but it would be a good thing 
to stop preaching the gospel and go right to work and preach 
separation to the church, until the church shall separate from the 
world. If we could only draw the line, and say wherein they shall 
be separate! 

This idea that we have to be mingled with ungodly men and be 
yoked with them is contrary to the teachings of God. God 
says, " If you will separate from the world, I will walk with you 
and bless you." If some prophet would arise and raise a cry of sepa- 
ration, and impress it upon the people until we could get the Church 
of God separate from the world, it wou'd be a great day for Christian 
people. " Be not unequally yoked." What does that mean V Some 
say that means matrimony. If a Christian man has a Christian wife, 
he says it means matrimony. If he has an unchristian wife, and 
wants to get away from her, he says it moans matrimony. If a man 



334 WALKING WITH GOD. 

who is a Christian wants to marry a woman who is not a Christian, 
he says it does not mean matrimony. A man came to me one day, 
after I had been preaching on this subject, in great trouble. He 
said, "I enjoyed that part of your lecture ever so much, but I don't 
believe it means secret societies; does it?" " Do you belong to one? 
said I. "Yes," he said. And so people think it means what it says, 
unless it goes right home to them. I think we do not need any 
particular light thrown upon that passage ; It is very clear. If God 
will walk with us, we have to be separate from unbelievers. If I am 
identified with ungodly persons, how is God going to walk with me? 
How can two walk together unless they be agreed? Walking means 
communion, fellowship. If you see two men walking together every 
day, coming up from business at night and going back down the 
avenue to business in the morning, we make up our minds that they 
agree with one another, and have fellowship together. If a man is 
walking all the time with unbelievers, it is pretty good proof that he 
is not walking with God. God says you must come out and be sepa- 
rate from the world. I believe it means matrimony. I do not be- 
lieve a Christian man has a right to marry any unconverted woman. 
I do not believe any woman has a right to marry any unconverted 
man. I imagine you will, many of you, go out of this building after 
you have heard this, and laugh about it, and ridicule the whole idea. 
Nevertheless, here is the Word of God for it. I never knew any 
one to go against it that did not suffer for it. Let him that takes off 
the harness laugh, not him that puts it on. It is not for you, young 
people, that have not seen as much of life and the world as some 
others, to say that you can go right on and dispute this thing. Yon 
can see it is plain. There is not a mother here that would not feel 
badly to have a daughter marry a man that could not bear her, but 
would only make her wretched and abuse her. There is no father 
here who would not be made miserable by such a possibility. Do 
you suppose God does not feel it to have his sons and daughters 
marry an unregenerate and unconverted person that hated God, and 
would doubt him and misrepresent him and abuse him? That is 
what the world is doing. You say: "Yes, but I will have influence 
over this person if I marry him." Well, get influence over him be- 
fore you marry him. You may say some Christians are already mar- 
ried to unbelievers. Well, you have passages of scripture about 
that to tell you what to do. You are not then to be separated. If 
you are not already married, if you are not yoked, you had bet- 
ter take the advice given here in the Word of God. Do not be 
yoked up with unbelievers. Some of you say, perhaps: "If you take 
that ground, some people will leave the church." Well, of course; 
but a great many more will come who will be worth hundreds of 
such. Is it not a good deal better to have these false professors go 
back? We say go back; but that they could not do, because they 



WALKING WITH GOD. 335 

have never really gone forward. It is the church shaking off these 
pretenders that are hanging on to it. God says, he will walk with 
us and adopt us as his children. I would rather have the smile of 
heaven than the applause of the unconverted world. We have been 
trying too long to call upon the sons of BeUal to help on the church. 
We can get on without them. It will wake up the converted pre- 
tenders to feel that the church can do without them. You say we 
need their money. We can get along well enough without it. God's 
people have money enough. God is rich; the cattle on a thousand 
hills are his; he can take care of us; he has money enough. 

A man came to me some time ago in some trouble, because having 
formed a partnership some time before with two men in business, he 
found his partners wanted him to do something that would compro- 
mise his Christian principles. He was greatly excited. I asked, 
"When did you form this partnership?" "Three years ago." 
"When did you become a Christian?" " Fifteen years ago." "Oh," 
said I, "there is the trouble. Why did you go and yoke yourself up 
with these unbelievers?" He said: "I thought I could make more 
money, and could give it to the Lord." That is the way with a good 
many; but the Lord can do without your money. Be right with 
God, and let the money take care of itself. I cannot, with an open 
Bible before me, see what right any child of God has to go and yoke 
himself up with unbelievers, in business, or in secret societies, or 
any other society. If you say it is to do good, you can do more good 
without them than you can possibly do by identifying yourself with 
them. Abraham had more influence over Sodom away up in heaven 
than Lot had there in Sodom. You say you must go into the world, 
and go to theatres and the opera, and be hand and glove with the 
world, in order to lift the world up, and get an influence over the 
world. I am sure that in the twenty-one years that I have been in 
the Church of God, it has been my experience that these worldly 
Christians never lifted up the world yet. Some one said: "You 
might as well try to make the ocean fresh by throwing a piece of 
fresh meat into it, as expect to help up the world by becoming a part 
of it." 

We have been redeemed out of this world and transplanted into 
another world. We are children of the light; let us walk with chil- 
dren of the light, and not with children of darkness. I have noticed 
that when a Christian man goes into the world to get an influence 
over the world, and does as the world does, he suffers more than the 
world does. Oh, my friends if you want power with God and man, 
be separate from the world! You say if you take that stand you 
will have to go alone! Well, you can go alone, if you have God 
with you. Some one said, "If you take that course, the whole world 
is against you." Well, then, be against the whole world. Stand 
alone with God, and God will bless you. Joseph in Egypt, walking 



336 WALKING WITH GOD. 

with God, had more power than all the men in Egypt apii-t from 
him. When they locked him into prison, they had to lock the Al- 
mighty in with him. You may suffer in the sight of the world, for a 
while; they may abuse you and say that you are a Pharisee. Never 
mind. Know that you are right, and be able to look up and see 
God smiling upon you. Oh, that God's dear people may learn the 
sweet lesson of separation! Be not unequally yoked with unbeliev- 
ers. Come out from them. "I will be your God, and I will walk 
with you," says Jehovah. I believe in my soul that the reason why 
so few of us have power with God and with man is because we are 
so near the world, and we are so much like it. Oh! that the Spirit 
may show us what it is to be separate, to-day, that we may know 
what it is to have God walk with us! 

In the 8th chapter of John, it tells about a great many Christians 
that are groping in darkness; and I hear a great many persons say 
they feel just so. I will tell you the reason. You have got away 
from Christ. I contend that it is utterly impossible for any child of 
God to walk in the darkness who is following him. Why? Because 
he is the Light of the World. If you just get near him, you will 
have the light all around you. It is because people have got away 
from the light that they are groping in darkness. It is the privilege 
of every child of God to walk in an unclouded suu. If people would 
stop looking down at themselves, and would look up at Christ and 
keep looking at him, they would have peace and light and joy all 
the while. That is where you get those things. There is no light 
in ourselves; or if there is, it is borrowed light that comes from God. 
Christ is the Light of the World. He says: "If any man follow me, 
he shall not walk in darkness; he shall have the light of life." 

When I was a little boy I used to try to catch my own shadow. I 
don't know whether any of you have been so foolish as that or not. 
1 could not see why the shadow always kept ahead of me. Once I 
happened to be racing with my face to the sun, and I looked over 
my head and saw my shadow coming back of me; and it kept behind 
me all the way. It is the same with the Sun of Righteousness. 
Peace and joy will go with you while you go with your face toward 
him. 

Once I was trying to walk across the field after a fresh fall of snow. 
I would try and see how straight a line I could make with my foot- 
prints in the snow. When I looked around to see how straight I 
was going, I always walked crooked; but if I kept my eye on the 
mark ahead of me, and did not take it off, I could walk straight 
enough. So if Christians only kept their eyes on the mark — on 
Christ Jesus, and followed in his footsteps, not turning around to 
see what kind of a path they made — they would walk straighter. 
He is our model. If, instead of asking, Why can't I do this and 
thnt? Whv can't I dance? Why can't I go to the theatre? Why 



WALKING WITH GOD. 337 

can't I read The New York Ledger? I don't see why I can't do it! 
Can you? Then put it in this way, What is the use of it? " Will it 
make me a better Christian?" If it won't, then I won't do them. 
Instead of asking, What is the use? and Why can't I? ask if it will 
be for the honor and glory of Jesus; and if it won't, say, I won't do 
it. 

I do not see that we can have any better example than Christ him- 
self. Just consult the Word of God, and see what Christ would do. 
You will find that God never makes a man do wrong. Who ever 
heard of a man backsliding who walked with God? God never back- 
slides. If we are going to keep company with God, we have got to 
walk. 9 God does not stand still, and does not run. You must grow 
in grace, or else in worldliness. Enoch walked with God. He found 
the right way, back there in that dim age. He was the most unpop- 
ular man in that time. If they had had him up for office, I don't 
think he would have got to be even so much as constable. God and 
he agreed very well, so that at last God said to him, " Come up here 
and walk with me." Old Dr. Bonner said, "Enoch started on a very 
long walk one day — he has not got back yet." It is sweet to walk 
with God. We walk the wilderness to-day, and the promised land 
to-morrow. Oh, that we all could say, "Father, take my hand," and 
put our hands in his to-day. There is a difference between our 
having hold of God and his having hold of us. If God has hold of 
me, I cannot fall, can I? If the great God who created heaven and 
earth held us by the hand, what have we to fear? When my little 
girl was about three or four years old her mother got her a new muff, 
and then she wanted to go right out and take a walk with that muff. 
She teased me to go out walking with her. I told her I was tired, 
but after a while I got up and went with her. I said, "Emma, you 
had better let me take hold of your hand." She said, "No, I want 
to put my hands in my muff like mamma does." She was as proud as 
a peacock with the muff, and went strutting down the street. So a 
great many people start out with the idea that they are saved and 
can get along without the Word of God, but they find they need to 
have God hold them all the time. My little girl went alone for a 
minute, and by-and-by down she went. When she got up she said, 
"Papa, I wish you would let me take hold of your little finger;" but 
I said, " If you do, when your feet go from under you, you will let 
go and go down." She insisted on having my little finger, so I gave 
it to her. Pretty soon her little feet slipped from under her, and 
down she went again. Then when she got up she said, "Papa, I wish 
you would take my hand." So I took her little hand, and held it by 
the wrist. Her feet went out from under her a number of times 
after that; but she did not fall, because 1 held her. Oh, my friends 
let us learn the lesson to-day of separation from the world. Enoch 
walked with God, and God saved him. Abraham walked with God,- 
22 



338 love. 

and God became his friend. Let as to- 1 ■» - *>ut our hands in his as a 
friend, and take hold and walk with him. 



LOVE. 

" Brit, if any man love God, the same is known of him.*' 1 Corinthians 8: 3. 

A few weeks ago we had for our subject, Love. I did not say 
upon that occasion all I wanted to upon that subject; and to-day I 
would like to continue it. . Some one has said that the fruit of the 
Spirit is all in one word — " love." It speaks in Galatians about love, 
the fruit of the Spirit being love, joy, peace, gentleness, long-suffering, 
meekness and temperance. The way this writer has put it — and I 
think it is very beautiful — is that joy is love exultant, peace is love 
in repose, and long- suffering is love enduring. It is all love, you 
see, and gentleness is love is society, and goodness is love in action, 
and faith is love on the battle-field, and meekness is love at school, 
and temperance is love in training. Now there are a great many 
that have got love, and they hold the truth. I should have said they 
have got truth but they don't hold it in love; and they are very un- 
successful in working for God. They are very harsh, and God can- 
not use them. Now let us hold the truth, but let us hold it in love. 
People will stand almost any kind of plain talk, if you only do it in 
love. If you do it in harshnes it bounds back, and they won't re- 
ceive it. So what we want is to have the truth, and at the same 
time hold it in love. 

Then there is another class of people in the world that have got 
the truth; but they love so much that they give up the truth, be- 
cause they are afraid it will hurt some one's feelings. That is wrong. 
We want the whole truth any way. We don't want to give it up 
but hold it in love; and I believe one reason why people think God 
don't love them is, because they have not this love. I met a lady in 
the inquiry-room to-day, and I could not convince her that God loved 
her; for she said if he did love her, he would not treat her as he had. 
And I believe people are all the time measuring God with their own 
rule, as I said the other day; and we are not sincere in our love, 
and we very often profess something we don't really possess. Very 
often we profess to have love for a person when we do not; and we 
think God is like us. Now God is just what he says he is, and he 



love. 339 

wants his children to be sincere in love; not to love just merely in 
word and in tongue, but to love in earnest. That is what God does. 
You ask me why God loves. You might as well ask me why the sun 
shines. It can't help shining, and neither can he help loving, be- 
cause he is love himself; and any one that says that he is not love, 
does not know anything about love himself. If we have got the true 
love of God shed abroad in our hearts, we will show it in our life. 
We will not have to go up and down the earth proclaiming it; we 
will show it in everything we say or do. 

There is a good deal of what you might call sham love. People 
profess to love you very much, when you find it is all on the surface. 
It is not heart love. Very often you are in a person's house, and 
the servant comes in and says such a person is in the front room; 
and she says: " Oh, dear, I am so sorry he has come; I can't bear the 
sight of him;" and she'll get right up and go into the other room, 
and say, "Why, how do you do? I am very glad to see you!" 
[Laughter.] There is a good deal of that sort of thing in the world. 
I remember, too, I was talking with a man one day, and an acquaint- 
ance of his came in; and he jumped up at once and shook him by 
the hand — why, I thought he was going to shake his hand out of 
joint, he shook so hard, and he seemed to be so glad to see him, and 
wanted him to stay, but the man was in a great hurry and could 
not stay, and he coaxed and urged him to stay, but the man 
said no, he would come another time; and after that' man went 
out my companion turned to me and said, " Well, he is an awful 
bore; and I am glad he's gone." Well, I began to feel that I was a 
bore, too; and I got out as quick as I could. [Laughter.] That is 
not real love; that is love with the tongue, while the heart is not 
true. Now, let us not love in word and in tongue, but in deed and 
in truth. That is the kind of love God gives us, and he wants the 
same in return. 

Now there is another side to this truth. A man was talking to me, 
out here the other day, that he didn't believe there was any love at 
all; that Christians professed to have love, but he didn't believe 
men could have two coats; and I think he reflected on me, because I 
had on my overcoat at the time, and he hadn't got any. I looked at 
him and said: "Suppose I should give you one of my coats, you would 
drink it up before sundown. I love you too much to give you my 
coat and have you drink it up." A good many people are complain- 
ing now that Christians don't have the love they ought to have; but 
I tell you it is no sign of want of love that we don't love the lazy 
man. I have no sympathy with those men that are just begging 
twelve months of the year. It would be a gOod thing, I believe, to 
have them die off. They are of no good. I admit that there are some 
that are not real, and sincere, and true; but there are many that would 
give the last penny they had to help a man who really needed help. 



840 LOTH. 

But there are a good many sham oases — men that won't work, and 
the moment they get a penny they spend it in drink. To such men 
it is no charity to give. A man that won't work should be made to 
work. I believe there is a great deal more hope of a drunkard, or a 
murderer, or a gambler, than there is of a lazy man. I never heard 
of a lazy man being converted yet, though I remember talking once 
with a minister in the backwoods of Iowa about lazy men. He was 
all discouraged in his efforts to convert lazy men; and I said to him, 
"Did you ever know of a lazy man to be converted?" "Yes," said 
he, "I knew of one, but he was so lazy he did not stay converted but 
about six weeks." And that is as near as I ever heard of a lazy man 
being converted; and if there are any here to-day saying they don't 
love us because we don't give them any money, I say we love them 
too well. We don't give to them because it is ruin. 

Some years ago I picked up several children in Chicago, and thought 
I would clothe and feed them; and I took special interest in those 
boys, to see what I could make of them. I don't think it was thirty 
days before the clothes had all gone to whisky, and the fathers had 
drank it all up. One day I met one of the little boys, for whom I 
had bought a pair of boots only the day before. There was a snow- 
storm coming up, and he was barefooted. " Mike," says I, " how's 
this? Where are your shoes?" "Father and mother took them 
away," said he. There is a good deal that we think is charity, that 
is really doing a great deal of mischief; and the people must not think, 
because we don't give them money to aid them in their poverty, that 
we don't love them; for the money would go into their pockets to 
get whisky with. It is no sign that we are all hypocrites, and insin- 
cere in our love, that we don't give money. I believe if the prod- 
igal son could have got all the money he wanted in that foreign 
country, he would never have come home, and it was a good thing 
for him that he did get hard up, and had to live on the husks that the 
swine ate. And it is a good thing that people should suffer. If they 
get a good living without work, they will never work. We can never 
make anything of them. God has decreed that man shall earn his 
bread by the sweat of his brow, and not live on other people. 

But I am getting away from the subject. I only wanted to touch 
upon this subject because a good many are complaining that Chris- 
tian people don't help them. I have sometimes fifteen or twenty 
letters a day, coming from Kansas and Europe even, asking us to take 
up a collection. They say: "Here is a poor woman. Just get the 
people to give a penny apiece." Suppose we began doing that sort of 
thing. We should have to have somebody to look up this man or 
this woman, and find if they are worthy. If we took up one collec- 
tion we would have to take up five hundred. I never found a person 
itrue to Christ but what the Lord would take care of them. I think 
it is k £r>od -thing for people to suffer a little until they come ba.ok to 



LOVE. 841 

God. They will find that God will take care of them that love him. 
A great many say, " Oh, I love God." It is easy enough to sav this; 
but if you do love God he knows about it, be assured. He Knows 
how much you love him. You may deceive your neighbors, and 
think you love God, and assume a good deal of love, when there is 
really no love in your heart. Now it says in Corinthians viii. 3: 
" But if any man love God, the same is known of him." God is look- 
ing from heaven down into this world just to find that one man. God 
knows where he lives, the number of his house, and the name of the 
street he lives in. In fact he has the very hairs of your head num- 
bered; and he will take good care of you. He will not let any of 
his own children come to want. He will not let any of those who come 
to want suffer. He will provide for their wants, if they are only sin- 
cere; but he don't want any sham work. When the Lord was here, 
he was all the time stripping those Pharisees of their miserable self- 
righteousness. They professed great love for him, while their hearts 
were far from God. Let us not profess to love God with our tongue 
and lips, while our lives are far from it. 

Another class says: "1 don't know whether I love God or not; I 
am really anxious to know whether or not I love God." Now, if 
you are really anxious, it won't take you long to find out. You can- 
not love God and the world at the same time, because they abhor 
each other. They are at enmity, always have been, and always will 
be. It is the world that crucified God's Son; it was the world that 
put God's Son to death. Therefore, if we love the world, it is pretty 
good evidence that the love of the Father is not in us. We may 
say our prayers and go through some religious performances, but our 
hearts are not right with God; because we cannot love God and the 
world at the same time. We have got to get the world under our 
feet, and the love of God must be first in our hearts, or else we have 
not got the love of God. The command we have is, that he who 
loveth God loveth his brother also. Now if we have got our heart 
full of enmity and jealousy and malice toward any of God's chil- 
dren, it is a sure sign that the love of God is not in our hearts. To 
love a man that loves me — that don't require any goodness; the 
greatest infidel can do that; but to love a man that reviles me and 
lies about me and slanders me — that takes the grace of God. I may 
not associate with him; but I may love him. I may hate the sin, but 
love the sinner. And that is one of the tests by which I find out 
whether you have love in your heart. The first impulse of the young 
convert is to love every one, and to do all the good he can, and that 
is the sign that a man has been born from above, born of God, and 
that he has got real love in his heart; and these tests God gives us 
that we may know. The question is: Do you love the world? Had 
you rather go to a theatre than to prayer-meeting? Had you rather go 
to a dance than to commune with the godly? If so it is, then it is a 



342 love. 

good sign that you have not been converted and not born of God. 
That is a good test. People want to know whether they love God 
or not; let them turn to that test and they will find out. If your 
heart is set on the world and you had rather not be with God's 
people, it is a sure sign that you have not been born of God. 

Well, there is another class of people who say: "I don't see, if 
God really loves me and I love him, why I am called upon to have so 
many afflictions and troubles." Just turn a moment to the 8th chap- 
ter of Romans, the 28th verse: "And we know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God, to them that are called ac- 
cording to his promise." It is not in a few things, nor a part of 
them, but all work together for good. Give a man constant pros- 
perity and how quick he turns away from God; and so it is a little 
trouble here, and a little reverse here, and some prosperity there, and 
taken all together it is the very thing we need. 

If you just take your Bibles, you will find that God loves you. 
There is no one in this wide world, sinner, that loves you as God 
loves you. You may think your father loves you, or your mother 
loves you, or a brother or a sister, but let me tell you, you can 
multiply it by ten thousand times ten thousand before it can equal 
God's love. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
Can you have greater proof of God's love and Christ's love? 
" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life 
for his friends." Christ laid down his life for his enemies. Ah, 
my friends, it will take all eternity for us to find out the height and 
breadth and length and depth of God's love. I am told that when 
that Roman Catholic Archbishop in Paris was thrust into prison dur- 
ing the last war, there was a window in the door of his cell in the 
shape of a cross. He took his pencil and at the top and bottom 
marked the height and length and depth, and at each end of the 
arm the length and breadth. Ah, that Catholic bishop had been to 
Calvary. He could realize the breadth and length and depth and 
height of God's love, and that Christ gave himself up freely for 
us all. 

How a man with an open Bible can say that God don't love him 
is more than I can understand. But the devil is deceitful, and puts 
that into their heads. Let me beg you, go to Calvary, and there 
you may, just for a moment, catch a glimpse of God's love. There 
was a man came from Europe to this country, a year or two ago; and 
he became dissatisfied and went to Cuba in 1867, when tjiey had 
that great civil war there. Finally, he was arrested for a spy, court- 
martialed, and condemned to be shot. He sent for the American 
consul, and the English consul, and went on to prove to them that 
he was no spy. These two men were thoroughly convinced that the 
man was no spy; and they went to one of the Spanish officers and 
said, " This man you have condemned to be shot is an innocent man." 



love. 343 

" Well," the Spanish officer says, " the man has been legally tried 
by our laws and condemned; and the law must take its course, and 
the man must die." And the next morning the man was led out; 
the grrave was already dug for him, and the black cap was put on him, 
and the soldiers were there ready to receive the order, "fire," and in 
a few moments the man would be shot, and be put in the grave, and 
covered up, when who should rise up but the American consul, who 
took the American flag and wrapped it around him, and the English 
consul took the English flag and wrapped it around him, and they 
said to those soldiers, "Fire on those flags, if you dare!" Not a 
man dared; there were two great governments behind those flags. 
And so God says, " Come under my banner, come under the banner 
of love, come under the banner of heaven." God will take good 
care of all that comes under his banner. Oh, my friends, come under 
the banner of heaven to-night. This banner is a banner of love. 
May it float over every soul here, is the prayer of my heart. God 
don't will the death of any who will come under his banner of love. 
It is pure love; and, sinner, may the love of God bring you into the 
fold, is the prayer of my heart. I read once of a young man who 
left his father, and at last that father died, and the boy came to the 
funeral, and there was not a tear that flowed over his cheeks during 
all the funeral. He saw that father laid down into the grave, and he 
did not shed a tear. When they came to break the will, and the 
boy heard that the father had dealt kindly with him, and had given 
him some property, he began to shed tears. When that boy heard 
his father's will read, his heart was broken, and he came to his 
father's God. Oh, sinner, if you want to find out God's love, take 
this -last will and testament of Jesus Christ. He showed his love by 
going to Calvary; he showed his love by his death agony there. He 
loves you with an everlasting love; he don't want you to perish. 
Oh, may you love him in return. 



CHRIST AND ADAM 

"The first man, Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening 
spirit." 1 Corinthians 15 : 45. 

I want to speak to-day upon the subject of the two Adams. Every 
person in this hall to-day is either in the first or second Adam; and 
I want for a little wLile just to draw the contrast between the two 
Adams. In the first chapter of Genesis, 26th verse, we find the 
Lord made the first Adam lord over everything, over creation. They 
have in the old country a great many titled men, and a good many 
that they call lords. You might say that Adam was the first lord; 
he was the first man that was lord over creation. God had made 
him lord, or you might say king; and the whole world was his king- 
dom. He was the father of all. The second Adam you will find if 
you turn to the first of Mark. You will see that when Christ com- 
menced his ministry, after he had been baptized by John, he went 
off into the wilderness; and there he was among the wild beasts for 
forty days. He was not made lord over everything. He came not 
as the first Adam did, but he that was rich became poor for our 
sakes. Then in the second chapter of Genesis, the 17th verse, you 
will find the first Adam introduces sin into the world. I used to 
stumble over that verse more than any other verse in the whole Bi- 
ble. I could not understand how God said Adam should die the day 
he ate that fruit and yet he lived a thousand years. I didn't under- 
stand then, as I do now, that the life of the body is not anything in 
comparison with the death of the soul. Adam died in his soul right 
there and then. Death is just being banished from God's sight; for 
God is the author of life, and the moment the commmnication was 
cut between Adam and God, that was the end of life. It was then 
"Eat and die." Thank God! it is now Eat and live. If we eat of 
the bread of heaven, we shall live forever. 

Then in the 3d chapter of the 6th verse, God told him not to do 
it; and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and 
that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one 
wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did .eat, and gave also unto 
her husband with her, and he did eat. Now, there is the first sin 
that came into the world. The second man, instead of yielding to 
sin — he that knew no sin — became sin for us. The first man brought 
sin upon us and brought sin into the world; but the second man, 
who was without sin, became sin for us. A great many complain 
because Adam's sin comes down upon the human race all these 6000 
344 






CHRIST AND ADAM. 3^5 

years. They seem to think it is unjust in God that Adam's sin 
should be visited upon the whole human race; but they forget that 
the very day Adam fell God gave us a Savior and a way of escape; 
so that, instead of complaining about God being unjust, it seems to 
me every one of us ought to look on the other side and see what a 
God of grace and love we have. God was under no obligation to 
do that. If it had been any one of us, we would have come down 
and pulled the rebel from the face of the earth. We would have 
created another man, it might have been; but God made a way for 
Adam and all his posterity to be saved. He gave us another man 
from heaven, and through him all of us could be saved, just by ac- 
cepting life. Through the disobedience of one, many were made 
sinners; but, thank God, through the obedience of another, many 
are made heirs of eternal life. I want every one in this hall to 
just turn away from this first Adam. He has brought all the misery 
into this world. It came by Adam's disobedience and transgression. 
He disobeyed, and sin came, and death came by sin. God's word 
must be kept, but you turn to the 11th chapter of John, and you 
find Christ is the Resurrection and the Life. One brought death, and 
the other brought immortality to life. If it were not for Christ, we 
should know nothing about resurrection. I pity the poor man that 
ignores Christ, who rejects the Son of God. What has he got to do 
at the resurrection? In the 3d chapter of Genesis the first i\.dam 
lost life. In the first chapter of John, the second Adam gives it 
back to us, if we will only take it. The gift of God is eternal life, 
and all we have to do is just to take it. All the pain and sickness 
in this world came by the first Adam; but, thank God, the second 
Adam came to bear away our griefs and sorrows. " Surely he hath 
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." And you will find in the 
17th chapter of Matthew, that he cures our sicknesses. Now, when 
the first Adam had done this, had sinned and brought death upon 
the world, had brought a curse upon it, he ran away and hid in the 
bushes. But when the second Adam came to take his place and 
suffer his guilt, instead of hiding away in the bushes of Gethsemane, 
he came out and said to these men who were seeking for him, 
" Whom seek ye?" and they said, "Jesus of Nazareth;" and he an- 
swered and said, "Here am I." He delivered himself up. The 
first man was disobedient unto death, but the second man was obe- 
dient unto death. Through the obedience of one many shall be made 
alive, many shall live forever. Turn back to Corinthians, 15th chapter, 
45th verse. That is the most wonderful chapter, almost, in the whole 
Word of God. You ought to be well acquainted with the 15th 
chapter. " And so it is written, the first man, Adam, was made a 
living soul, the last Adam Avas made a quickening spirit." Now, 
there is a difference between a living soul and a quickening: spirit. 
The first was made a living soul; but he could not impart life to a 



34:6 CHRIST AND ADAM. 

dead body. He could hand life down through his own family and 
his own line. He was made a living soul, and he could have lived 
forever, if he had not sinned; but the second Adam was made a 
quickening spirit; therefore he could raise others from the dead. 
All he had to do was to speak to a dead body, and it would live. 
That is the difference between the first Adam and the second. The 
first was made a living soul, and he lost life; and the second was 
made a quickening spirit, and all he had to do was to speak to dead 
bodies and they lived. He was the conqueror over death; he bound 
death hand and foot, and overcame it, and was a quickening spirit. 

Now the first Adam was of earth, earthly. God promised him the 
earth; God gave him Eden, and he was all of this earth, earthly. The 
second man is the Lord from heaven. That is the difference between 
the two Adams. One is all of earth, earthly, and the other is from 
heaven. Now I don't see what people are going to do with these 
passages in the Bible where they try to ignore Christ's godhead, say- 
ing that He did not belong to the godhead. That he was not God- 
man. "The second man was from heaven," says Paul; and therefore 
he spoke as a man from heaven. When the first Adam was tempted, 
he yielded to the first temptation. When the second Adam was 
tempted, He resisted. Satan gave him a trial. God won't have a 
Son that He cannot try. He was tried; he was tempted; He took 
upon him your nature and mine, and withstood the temptation. The 
first Adam was tempted by his bride. The second was tempted for 
His bride. God says, " I will give you the church." He was tempted 
in this world just for his bride — the Church. He came for his bride, 
and instead of the bride tempting him, he overcame all that he might 
win the bride to himself. And you can always tell the difference 
between the two Adams. When the first Adam sins, he begins to 
make an excuse. Man must have an excuse always ready for his 
sins. When God came down and said, "Adam, where art thou? 
What have you been doing? Have you been eating of that tree?" 
he hung his head, and had to own up that he had; but he said, "Lord, 
it is the woman that tempted me." He had to charge it back upon 
God, you see. Instead of putting the blame where it belonged, on 
his own shoulders, he tried to blame God for his sins. That is what 
the first Adam was. We have it right here every day in our inquiry- 
room — men trying to charge the sin back on God, instead of getting 
up and confessing their sins. They say: " Why did God tempt me? 
Why did God do this and that?" That was the spirit of the first 
Adam. But, thank God, the second Adam made no excuse. He 
took it upon himself to bear our sins upon the tree. The first Adam 
looked upon the tree and plucked its fruit, and fell. The second 
Adam was nailed to the tree. "Cursed is every one that is nailed 
to the tree." He became a curse for us. The two wonderful events 
that have taken place in the world are these, that when the first 



CHBIST AND ADAM. 347 

Adam went up from Eden he left a curse upon the earth; but when 
the second Adam went up from the Mount of Olives He lifted the 
curse. The first brought the curse upon the earth, the second as he 
went up from the Mount of Olives lifted the curse, and so every man 
that is in Christ can shout Victory! And there is no victory until he 
is in Christ. 

When God turned Adam out of Eden, he put cherubim at the 
gate with a sword; he could not go back to the tree of life. It would 
have been a terrible thing if they had gone back and eaten the fruit, 
and had never died. O my friends, it is a good thing to be able to 
die, that in the evening of life we may shuffle off this old Adam coil, 
and be with the Son of God. There is nothing sad about death to a 
man that is in Jesus Christ. God put a sword there to guard the 
tree of life. The Son of man went into the garden and plucked up 
the tree, and transferred it into Paradise. The gates are ajar (that 
is a poetical expression, but I use it for an illustration); and all we 
have to do is to walk right in and pluck the fruit and eat. Men com- 
plain because Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden. I would 
rather be up there, where Satan cannot go, than to be in the old Eden. 

Thanks be to God, Satan cannot go up there! The tree is planted 
by the throne of God, and there is the crystal stream by the river, 
and the tree is planted beside it. If God put Adam out of this earth- 
ly Eden on account of one sin, do you think he will let us into the Par- 
adise above with our tens of thousands of sins upon us? If he 
punished one sin in that way, and would not allow him to live in the 
old garden for one sin, will he permit us to go to heaven, with all our 
many sins upon us? There is no sense in the sacred history of the 
atonement, unless our sins have been transferred to another and put 
away. There is no hope unless God's sword has been raised against 
sin; and if God finds sin on you and I, we must die. All we have to 
do is to turn our sins over to him who has borne our sins in his own 
body on the tree. Will you turn to the third chapter of Colossians, 
3d verse: "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." 
When Adam was driven out of Eden, all he lost was an earthly gar- 
den. God never promised him heaven. He was not a fallen man; 
he was an earthly man. God gave him Eden. What do we get if 
we are of the second Adam? The moment that God pronounced his 
creation good, then evil began to creep in. You could hear the foot- 
steps of Satan coming. Satan said to himself: "Good, is it? I will 
mar it then;" and he went to work to destroy God's work. But no 
sooner had Satan left Eden, than God came right down and put 
man into a higher place than before. Thanks be to him, we have our 
life hid with Christ in God ! You know Satan was once the son of 
the morning, but God afterward cast him out; and now God takes a 
man and puts him in Satan's former place beside him on the throne. 
We have more in the second Adam than we lost in the first Adam. 



348 CHRIST AND ADAM. 

There is a poor sinner that takes and hides his life in Christ; how will 
Satan get at him? He is secure. Our life is where Satan cannot get 
at it. If he could, he would get at it before we could have time to 
get our dinners to-day, and we could not have the power our- 
selves to keep him out; but Christ keeps him out, and we are secure. 
When God said to old Adam, "Where art thou?" Adam went and 
hid away. When he asked the second Adam, "Where art thou?" 
he was at the right hand of God. When God asked the first Adam, 
"What hast thou done?" he said he had sinned. The second Adam 
said, "I have glorified thee forever." He came for that purpose; that 
is all that he did when he was down here on earth. 

I want to call your attention to the natures of the two men. It is 
one of the most important truths that can be brought out. I was 
a Christian for twelve or fifteen years before I understood the two 
natures. I had a good deal of doubt and uncertainty, because I did 
not understand one thing. I thought when a man was converted 
God changed his whole nature. We very often talk about a 
change of heart. I do not think that is a good way to put it. You 
cannot find those words in scripture. All through scripture it is a 
"new birth;" it is a new creation; it is a new life given; "born from 
above of the Spirit;" "born again." If it is a new birth, it must be 
a new nature. I believe that every child of God has two natures. 
Some people say, "Why have you Christians so much conflict? 
You are always struggling with yourselves, and having conflict. We 
don't have it. Why is it?" Because we have two natures; and 
there is a battle always going on between the worlds of light and 
darkness. Once there was a judge who had a colored man. The 
colored man was very godly, and the judge used to have him to drive 
him around in his circuit. The judge often talked with him; and 
the man would tell the judge about his religious experience, and 
battles and conflicts. One day the judge said to him: "Sambo, how 
is it that you Christians are always talking about the conflict you 
have with Satan? I am better off than you are. I don't have any 
conflicts or trouble, and yet I am an infidel." That floored the colored 
man for a while. He didn't know how to meet the old infidel's argu- 
ment. The judge always carried a gun along with him, for hunting. 
Pretty soon they came to a lot of ducks. The judge took his gun 
and blazed away at them, and wounded one and killed another. 
The judge said quickly, "You jump in and get the wounded duck;" 
and did not pay any attention to the dead one until the wounded 
one was safely secured. The colored man then thought he had his 
illustration. He said to the judge, "I think I can explain to you 
now how it is that Christians have more conflict than infidels. Don't 
you know that the moment you wounded that duck, how anxious 
you was to get him out, and that you didn't care anything about the 
dead duck until after you had saved the other one ?" " Yes," said 



CHRIST AND ADAM. ' 349 

the judge. "Well, I am a wounded duck; and I am all the time 
trying to get away from the devil; but you are a dead duck, and he 
has you anyhow, and does not bother about you until he gets me 
for certain." So the devil has no conflict. He can devour the help- 
less and the widow, and it does not trouble him; he can drive a sharp 
bargain, and get the advantage of a man and ruin him, and not be 
troubled about it; and he can heap up such things all the time and 
have no conflict within. Why? Because the new nature in him is 
not begun. When a man is born of God, he gets a new life. One 
is from heaven and comes from Christ, that heavenly manna that 
comes from the throne of God. The other is of the earth, earthy, 
and comes of the old Adam. When I was born of my father and 
mother, I received their nature; when they were born of their pa- 
rents, they received their nature; and you can trace it back to Eden. 
We then received God's nature. 

There are two natures in man that are as distinct as day and night. 
With that old Adam in us, if we do not keep him down in the place 
of death, he brings us into captivity. I do not see how any one can 
explain the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans in any other way. 
People sometimes tell me they have got out of the 7th chapter of 
Romans; but I notice they get back there again, always. The fact 
is, we do not know ourselves. It takes us all our lives to find out who 
and what we are: and when we think we know, something happens 
that makes us think we are not much further than we were when we 
started. The heart is deceitful above all things. In the 6th chapter 
of Romans, it x is written: "Knowing this, that the old man is cruci- 
fied with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that hence- 
forth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." 
And in the 11th verse there are just three words to be specially con- 
sidered: "Reckon yourselves dead." If we were really dead, we 
would not have to reckon ourselves dead; but if we were dead, as 
it means there, we would have to think of it and " reckon" about it. 
Judicially, we are dead; but in reality we are down here fighting the 
world, the flesh, and the devil. Some people seem to think they 
have got away from the flesh, and that they are soaring away in a 
sort of seventh heaven; but they get back again sooner or later. 
We find them wandering off down here. You cannot make the 
flesh anything but flesh. It will be flesh all the time; it will bring 
us into captivity. If we do not put it off and crucify it, and keep it 
in the place of death, it will keep us there forever. What if a man 
does yield, and says it is not he, but it is the sin in him? It is but 
one man after all, not two men; and one man is responsible. If I 
am led astray by Satan, I may protest against it as much as my ac- 
cuser does. I say, I know I have been wrong; I was off my guard; 
I was not watching; but I hate it as muoh as any one does. That is 
the reason why, in the 7th chapter of Romans, he calls it, " I pro- 



350 CHRIST AND ADAM. 

test." But protestation does not excuse us. A man went into court 
having been arrested for something. He said he did not do it; and 
when it was proved on him, he said he did not do it — it was the old 
man in him. The judge said: " Well, I will send the old man to 
prison; the other may do what he can." If we yield and sin, we 
have to suffer. 

And at the very time that we are doing good, Satan comes along 
and says, ** That is a good action ;" and goes on and gets us all 
puffed up. There are a good many that have been ruined by spirit- 
ual pride. This very time we are trying to do good, the devil is 
present trying to get us to do it with some impure motive. We are to 
put him off; he is no longer our master. We have been redeemed, 
and we belong to the new man. We must starve out the old man ; 
give him no food at all; not let him speak. The more we put him 
down, the weaker he gets, and the more the new man speaks through 
us, the more power he has and stronger he gets. As the house of 
Saul grew weaker and weaker, the house of David grew stronger. 
If you feed the old Adam it will go right on growing. If you go on 
with the world, and go to the theaters and to dancing-halls in pref- 
erence to prayer-meetings, the old man will get stronger and stronger. 

A friend of mine said that when he was converted and began 
preaching, he talked a good deal about himself. He said one day he 
saw in one of the hymn books left by a godly woman who had a seat 
in the church, a fly leaf on which was written these words: "Dear 
Harry; not I, but Christ; not flesh, but spirit; not sight, but faith." 
These words my friend pasted in hisBible, and never preached or 
thought any more about himself. He kept himself out of the way. 
That is just what the old man does not do. With him it is self, self, self. 
If it is the new man, it is not I, but Christ. If it is the new man, it 
is not flesh, but spirit. If it is the new man, it is not sight but faith. 
In the old Adam, it is death; in the new Adam, it is eternal life. 
We all come under the two heads. Which, my friend, do you belong 
to, the old creation or the new? Let us pray that we may stand by 
the throne of God, clothed in the righteousness of the second Adam. 



ONE THING THOU LACKEST. 

* One thing thou lackest." Mabk 10 : 21. 

I want to call your attention this evening to six " One things." 
The first, Mark x. 21: "One thing thou lackest." We very often 
hear people say, "Oh, well, he is a very good man;" or, " She is a 
very good person; but she lacks one thing;" or, "He lacks one 
thing." But if that one thing is salvation, why he lacks everything. 
You might say all that a dead man lacks is life. That is all. All 
that a beggar lacks is money to make him rich. Only one thing! A 
sick man, that is lying right on the borders of the eternal world, only 
lacks his health to make him all right. That is one thing; but it is 
everything to a man that is sick. Money is everything to a man in 
want — a beggar; and if a man lacks salvation, he lacks everything; 
and it seems to" me it would be well for us just to pause in life once 
in a while and ask ourselves the question, "Do we lack that one 
thing?" Now, that young man spoken of here came to Christ, and 
Christ beholding him loved him. He was a noble young man. He 
tried to save himself by the law. He had the law and the prophets, 
but when Christ just touched his heart — for he had his heart set on 
his possessions — he found that he did not love God with all his heart; 
he did not love his neighbor as himself. He thought he did, but he 
didn't know himself. He spoke very well of himself; he had a good 
opinion of himself. There are a great many such people, and it is 
almost impossible to do them good. It is a good deal better for God 
to say, " Well done !" than for us. It is a good deal better for God 
to say we lack nothing, than it is for us to say ourselves we are not 
lacking. I am told Whitefield once was a guest of a General high in 
position, and Whitefi eld's courage failed him. He wanted to speak to 
him about his soul, but he didn't have the courage. He was up late 
one evening and the next morning he was to go away early. The 
General was an old man; but he was one of those men that lacked 
that one thing. He lacked Christ and lacked salvation; and White- 
field when he went up stairs to retire, just took his diamond ring 
and wrote upon the pane of glass, "One thing thou lackest." And 
after Whitefield had gone some of the servants found that text of 
Scripture, and spoke to the General about it; and God used that to 
bring the old soldier to his knees and into the kingdom. 

" One thing thou lackest." My friends, do you lack Christ? I 
was speaking once in Manchester, on a platform very much higher 
than this, and right below me, in a seat olose up to the platform, sat 
351 



352 ONE THING THOU LACKEST. 

a man who strained his neck looking up at me all the time; and 1 
looked right down on him and said, " My friend, won't you take 
Christ?" Said he, "I have got him, thank God!" He did not lack 
him. He had got him; and it is the privilege of every one here to 
have salvation, and to know you have got it. Now, when I was out 
to sea, some time ago, we had been in a fog and storm and darkness 
for a day or two, and didn't know just where we were; but the mo- 
ment the clouds broke away a little and we could get a glimpse of 
the sun, we took an observation to find out where we were; and I 
think it would be well for sinners to take an observation and find 
out where they are. Have I a hope that will bear the light of 
eternity; or am I lacking that one thing that will be worth more 
than all the world when God calls me to stand for him? You know 
when a man comes to die, church order and government won't help 
him. It may be very well to ease a man's conscience; but when he 
comes to die, he wants a real, living, personal Christ. That is the 
one thing to have. My friends, have you got him? "Oh, yes, I go 
to church every Sunday." Well, that is not having Christ. You 
may go to church and lack Christ. "But I say my prayers." Yes, 
a man can say his prayers, too, and yet lack Christ. I suppose no one 
prayed more than Saul did in Jerusalem; at least he thought he 
prayed. The time he really prayed was when he got near to God 
and cried out, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? ' That prayer 
came right out of his heart, and not out of the prayer-book. He 
cried right out what he felt. There are a good many that are just 
going through the forms. They have got the form, but they have 
got no Christ. Now, my friends, let us be honest to-day; and let us 
see if we lack that one thing. If we do let us not rest until we have 
it. " One thing thou lackest;" and the young man turned away 
sorrowful. 

The next thing 1 want to call your attention to is in the 9th chap- 
ter of John. It is on assurance; because, after we have got Christ, 
the next thing is to know it. I have spoken sometimes about as- 
surance; but I wish I could every day, until I could get the church 
of God to look into the subject. Suppose I should meet you when 
you go out of here, and should take you by the hand and should ask, 
"Are you a Christian?" You would say: "I hope so; I trust I am." 
They don't dare to say right out, "Yes, I am on the Lord's side;" 
but they say it in such a stammering way that they don't really be- 
lieve it themselves. Night after night we have asked people to speak 
to those near them, and they dare not do it. I have learned this, 
that you cannot get men to work until they know the Savior them- 
selves. Now, this man says here: "I know that whereas I was blind 
I now see." If God does open our eyes we know it. They tried to 
make him believe that Christ was nothing but a man; but, said he: 
" Haven't I been feeling my way through the world for twenty-five 



ONE THING THOU LACKEST. 353 

years, and don't I know I can see now?" They could not beat that 
out of him. All the philosophy and science of the present day 
could not beat that out of him that whereas he was blind now he 
could see. All the Scribes and Pharisees could not beat it out of 
him. He said, "I know I see;" and so, my friends, it is the privilege 
of every one to have Christ, and to know we have him. This idea 
that we have got to go on through the world is a terrible uncertainty. 
We cannot tell whether we have got to spend eternity in heaven or 
hell. Some people say: "How are you going to be sure until you 
have got the judgment? You have got to wait until you are brought 
before the Judge." Thank God, we are not ever going to be brought 
into judgment. " Don't it say every one shall be brought into judg- 
ment?" they ask. Yes; but that is already passed. I have been 
brought into judgment nearly 1800 years ago at Calvary. If Christ 
was not Judge for me, who was he Judge for? If he didn't settle 
the claims of sin, what did he go into judgment for? What does 
the Cross mean, if it was not for judgment? But they say: " Don't 
it say in Corinthians, every man must give an account of himself for 
the deeds done in the body?" Certainly, every one must give an 
account of his stewardship, but not for sin. That is already settled. 
Don't it say in the Scripture: " Know ye not that your sin shall not 
be mentioned against you?" We are going to sit upon the throne, 
at the right hand of God himself. We are not going into judg- 
ment. 

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. If 
I didn't get eternal life twenty-one years ago, when I was converted, 
what did I get? Then if we get it, ought we not to know it? It is 
a terrible delusion of Satan; and I believe hundreds of Christian 
people are being deceived by Satan now on this one point, that they 
have not got the assurance of salvation, just because they are not 
willing to take God at his word. " But," a man said to me, " no 
one has come back; and we don't know what is in the future. It is 
all dark, and how can we be sure?" Thank God! Christ came down 
from heaven; and I would rather have him, coming as he does right 
from the bosom of the Father, than any one else. We can rely on 
what Christ says; and he says, "He that belie veth on me shall not 
perish, but hath everlasting life." Not that we are going to have it 
when we die, but right here to-day. 

And another thing, I don't believe we will have any peace or com- 
fort or joy until this question of assurance is settled. Some people 
say: " It is presumption for you to stand up there and say you know 
you are saved." I say it is presumption for me to stand up here and 
say I doubt it, when God has said it. Shall I doubt God's own 
Word? But you say, it is too good to be true. Then you must go 
and settle that thing with the Lord, not with me. I take it as I find 
it in the Word of God. Do you think he is going to leave his chil- 
23 



35-4 ONE THING THOU LA.CKEST. 

dreti down here in the dark world, to go through life with terrib e 
uncertainties, not knowing whether we are going to glory or perdi- 
tion? There is no knowledge like that of a man who knows he is. 
saved, who can look up and see his "title clear to mansions in the 
skies." 

It is said of Napoleon, that while he was reviewing his army one 
day, his horse became frightened at something, and the Emperor lost 
his rein and the horse went away at full speed; and the Emperor's 
life was in danger. He could not get hold of the rein, and a private 
in the ranks saw it, and sprang out of the ranks towards the horse,, 
and was successful in getting hold of the horse's head at the peril of 
of his own life. The Emperor was very much pleased. Touching 
his hat, he said to him, " I make you captain of my guard." The 
soldier didn't take his gun and walk up there. He threw it away, 
stepped out of the ranks of the soldiers, and went up to where the 
the body-guard stood. The captain of the body-guard ordered him 
back into the ranks; but he said, "No, I won't go." "Why not?" 
" Because I am captain of the guard." " You captain of the guard?" 
"Yes," replied the soldier. "Who said it?" And the man, pointing 
to the Emperor, said, "He said it." That was enough; nothing 
more could be said. He took the Emperor at his word. My friends, 
if God says anything, let us take him at his word. He that believeth 
on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, but hath everlasting life. 
Don't you believe it? Don't you believe you have got everlasting 
life? It can be the privilege of every child of God here to-night to 
believe, and then know that you have got it. 

How is a man going to do all this, if he does not think he has got 
the foundation ready, if he does not know he has eternal life? How 
is he going to add all these virtues and build up that monument, if 
if he has not that assurance? Do you not see that is the privilege 
of every one of God's dear children to-night to know that they have 
eternal life? Christ is ours, for time and eternity; he will never 
leave us. It seems to me that we want this doctrine preached and 
taught now, so that the Christians of New York will be helped to go 
to work, and to begin to talk to others. Make it personal. One 
thing I know; I cannot speak for others, but I can speak for myself. 
I cannnot read other minds and other hearts. I cannot read the Bi- 
ble and lay hold for others; but I can read for myself, and take 
God at his word. The great trouble is that people take everything 
in general, and do not take it to themselves. Suppose a man should 
say to me: " Moody, there was a man in Europe who died last week 
and left five million dollars to a certain individual." "Well," I say, 
"I don't doubt that; it is rather a common thing to happen;" and 
I don't think anything more about it. But suppose he says, 
" But he left the money to you." Then I pay attention. I say, "To 
me!" "Yes; he left it to you." I become suddenly interested, and 



ONE THING TIIOTJ LACKEST. 355 

want to know all about it. So we are apt to think Christ died for sin- 
ners; he died for everybody, and for nobody in particular. But when 
the truth comes to me that eternal life is mine, and all the glories of 
heaven are mine, I begin to be interested. I say, " Where is the 
chapter and verse where it says I can be saved?" If I put myself 
in among sinners, and take the place of a sinner, then it is that salva- 
tion is mine, and I am sure of it for time and eternity. 

In the first chapter of Luke, the 41st verse, we read of Mary's 
choice. After we have been saved, the next thing is to sit at the 
feet of Jesus, and learn of him, as Mary did. That is God's college. 
You may go through Andover and Princeton, and Yale and Har- 
vard, or any and all of the colleges; but if you don't goto God's col- 
lege, God will not use you for his cause. He sends his teachers all 
out from there. We must learn at the feet of Jesus, from his lips. 
A man who prayed at Jesus' feet did not have his prayers answered 
in the way he expected them to be. He wanted to stay there; he 
prayed to be allowed to sit at Jesus' feet forever. " No," said Christ, 
" go and tell what great things the Lord hath done for you." The 
first news that came to the disciples that Christ had risen, came from 
the two Marys. They came and fell at the feet of the Savior, and 
he said to them: " Go, publish what thou hast seen; go, tell the 
tidings." He said to Mary, "She hath the one thing needful;" and 
that was to sit at the fountain and drink of the wisdom of the Sa- 
viour. The disciples were called disciples because they were to learn 
of him. The young converts who are not willing to study Christ and 
learn of Jesus, are not fit for his service. They must go to God's 
college, and learn of him. Martha was like many who are willing to 
work for God, to do something for him, but are not willing to pause 
and hear the voice of Jesus. Hundreds of good people are willing to 
do all they can; but they are not willing to stop and hear the voice 
of the Lord, and receive instruction from him. He says " It is more 
blessed to give than to receive." Mary took her place of receiving, 
and was content to put the Lord in his place of giving something. 
She chose the good part. I think if I had Christ in my house to- 
night, I would feel like not doing anything, like letting the supper 
go, and sitting at his feet to ask him questions and listen to-answers. 
It is better, if we are going to work for God, to be alone with him a 
great deal. 

There are two lives that Christians lead; one before the world, 
wherein we manifest God; and there is a life that we must live alone 
with God, and sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ. The longer I live 
and the older I grow, the more convinced I am that there are times 
when we must sit quietly at the feet of Jesus, and only let God speak 
to our souls. O young friend, learn that lesson. It will save you 
many a painful hour. Just keep quietly alone, and learn of Jesus. 
Y ou know it is when a man is alone with his wife that he tells her 



356 ONE THING THOU LACKEST. 

the precious secrets of his soul. It is not when the family are around, 
or when there is company there. So, when we want to get the secrets 
of heaven, we want to be alone with Jesus, and listen, that he may 
come and whisper to our souls. The richest hours I have ever had 
with God have not been in great assemblies like this; but sitting 
alone at the feet of Jesus. But, in. these days of steam and tele- 
graph, we cannot get time to listen to Christ's whisper in our ears. 
We are so busy, we do not chose that one thing needful. If we did, 
we would not ta'k so much as we would listen; and when we did 
speak, it would be only when we had something to say. We would 
hear words that came from the Master; and they would burn down 
deep into our souls, and bring forth fruit. 

In the 20th chapter of Matthew, 8th verse, you read the words, 
" One is your Master." Ah, to learn who is your Master and serve 
him only ! We are willing to serve our friends, to serve the church, 
to serve the public, and please every one; and forget the Lord. But 
we should just have one Master, and live to please him alone; and 
he should be the Lord of Glory. He is a good Master. I want to 
recommend him to you here to-day. If he is not your Master, then 
the devil is. Every one has a master, who is either Satan or Christ. 
you may not acknowledge it; you may not know it; but either the 
Lord of glory or else the Prince of the powers of darkness is the one 
you serve. Satan is a hard and cruel master. If you make mistakes 
under him, he will have no mercy for you. When you get into 
trouble, if you are in his service, you will have to suffer indeed; but 
with the Lord of glory for your master, if you make mistakes or fall 
into error, all you have to do is to go and confess to him; and he will 
forgive you quickly and smile upon you, and restore to you the joy 
of salvation, if you have lost it. Oh, that we might learn the sweet 
lesson that "One is our Master," and that one is Christ in heaven. 
Those men who are trying to serve the public, what do they gain? I 
pity those men in Washington, who are trying to serve the public. 
We send them there, and then turn and abuse them. Public men 
get nothing but abuse, after all. It is a hard thing to serve the pub- 
lic; but it is a glorious thing to serve Christ. I would a thousand 
timet rather have him for my master than the cruel, heartless, wretched 
world. To know that we have only one master, but one to please 
and to serve; to live with that idea in view all the while — one to 
please and one to glorify — is a most blessed thing. He is not a hard 
master. He knows we are liable to mistakes; and he is ready and 
willing to forgive. If Christ is such a glorious master, should we not 
be willing to sacrifice ourselves to him and give up all and follow 
him, and turn our back upon this fleeting world and live for him? 
When our country was in danger, how men laid down their lives and 
gave up everything for their country. The moment Abraham Lin- 
coln called for 600,000 men, you could hear the tramp of their feet 



ONE TH1NO THOU LACKEST. 357 

in every direction; and the song went up from all quarters: "We 
are coming, Father Abraham, 600,000 strong." All Mr. Lincoln had 
to do was to call; and the men came pouring in. Christ is calling 
for laborers. There are nations perishing for the want of the Gospel 
tidings. We are a long time getting them to the world. America 
has men enough and money enough to do it all, to send the Gospel 
around this globe. It is high time that this Gospel was proclaimed 
in every town and village and hamlet throughout the whole world. 
It would be very easy, if God's disciples would work together for it. 

Oh, my friends, if we have such a glorious Master, who has passed 
through heaven and is sitting on the right hand of God, calling for 
laborers, shall we withhold our lives and affection? Shall we not go 
into the vinevard and work for him? It is a glorious thing to have 
such a Master, a high, exalted privilege to be a co-worker with God. 
Let us remember our chieftain has gone on before. , He bears even 
now at the throne of God those scars he received here for our sakes; 
he suffered and endured the cross, despising the shame, for the glory 
that was before him. Shall we excuse ourselves from work? Shall 
we say: "Do not send me, Lord; send some one else?" Oh, just 
to go into the heat of the battle! There has never been a time in 
your life, or mine, when we could work for our Lord and see such 
immediate fruits and results. It seems to me that all we have to do 
is to sow with one hand and reap with the other. The harvest seems 
to be white; the fields are waiting for the sickle; the voice of our 
master is calling us. Shall we hear that call in vain? Are there 
not thousands that shall say, "Lord, use me!" You, mothers, can be 
used; you, young men, can be used among your companions; you, 
gray-haired man, can be used in your declining days. Shall we not 
all go to work for him, while yet there is time? 

There is "one thing" that Paul speaks of: "One thing I do." 
Some one has said that the man who does one thing is a terrible 
man. I like to see those Christians who have a definite work, and 
are doing it. I like to see them work, in view of the heat and the 
burden of the day, and never weaken. I suppose it will turn out in 
New York, as it has in a great many other places where we have 
been, where a great many, having received a new spirit, are asking 
what they shall do. They are quickened into new life; they are all 
full of saul, full of life, and the fire burns in their souls; and they 
want to publish the tidings of salvation. The cry is, "What shall 
I do?" Let me say to you, find some one thing and do it 
well. Do not think anything you do for the Lord is a little work. 
What seems to you a little work may be the most mighty thing 
that has ever been done. You are a teacher in the Sunday-school, 
for example, and have a class of little boys; you do not know what 
these boys may become. There may be a Luther, there may be a 
Whitefield, there maybe a John Banyan there. You may call these 



358 ONE THING THOU LACKEST. 

little boys to Christ; and they may go out and move the world like 
Luther. No one ever thought that little monk would become so 
mighty in God's hand. He shook the whole world; the Spirit of the 
living God came upon him. The dark clouds that settled upon his 
nation were lifted and beaten back. He drove them back. It is a 
great thing to turn our soul to Christ. Oh, find some one thing to 
do for the Savior; and do it. well. "This one thing I do," said Paul. 
If he had folded his arms and said: "Oh, dear, the Christians are so 
cold we cannot do anything; if the church was wide awake we 
might." Never you mind whether the church is wide awake or 
not; you keep wide awake yourself. If you wait for the church, you 
will never do anything. I made up my mind, ten years ago, that 
I would go on as if there was not another man in the world 
but I to do the work. I knew I had to give my account of stew- 
ardship. I suppose they say of me: "Oh, he is a radical; he is 
a fanatic; he only has one idea." Well, it is a glorious idea. 
I would rather have that said of me than be a man of ten thou- 
sand ideas, and do nothing with them. To have one idea, and that 
idea Christ, that is the man forme; that is the man we want now. 
A man that has one idea, one desire, one thought, and that idea, that 
thought, that desire, Christ and him crucified — that is what this groan- 
ing, perishing world wants now. It can get on without our rhetoric; 
it can get on without our fine speeches, without out eloquence. 
They do not want those; they want Christ and him crucified. Let 
that old colored man find his work, and go about it; let that young 
lady find her work, and do it. Don't go and get discouraged when 
you get to work, because you don't find everything prosperous as 
you expected. You cannot tell what will prosper. What you think 
is prosperity may turn out to be the worst thing you could have done, 
and the thing you have least hope of may turn out to be your great- 
est success. 

An old woman who was seventy-five years old had a Sabbath- 
school, two miles away among the mountains. One Sunday there 
came a terrible storm of rain; and she thought at first she would not 
go that day, but then she thought, " What if some one should go 
and not find me there?" Then she put on her waterproof, and um- 
brella, and overshoes, and away she went through the storm, two 
miles away, to the Sabbath-school in the mountains. When she got 
there she found one solitary young man, and taught him the best she 
knew how all the afternoon. She never saw him again, and I don't 
know but the old woman thought her Sabbath had been a failure. 
That week the young man enlisted in the army; and in a year or two 
after the old woman got a letter from the soldier, thanking her for 
going through the storm that Sunday. This young man thought that 
stormy day he would just go and see if the old woman was in ear- 
nest; and if she cared enough about our souls to go through the 



ONE THING THOU LACKEST. 359 

rain. He found she came and taught him as carefully as if she was 
teaching the whole school, and God made that the occasion of win- 
ning that young man to Christ. When he lay dying in a hospital, 
he sent the message to the old woman that he would meet her in 
heaven. Was it not a glorious thing that she did not get dis- 
couraged, because she had but one school and scholar? Be willing 
to work with one. Bear in mind the words, " This one thing I do." 
Hive for souls and for eternity; I want to win some soul to Christ. 
If you want this and work for it, eternity alone can tell the result. 
May God give us a passion for souls. 

When Joshua was 110 years old, the old warrior lay dying, and 
he called the Elders in Israel around him; and as they gathered 
around his bedside, he gave them these words as his dying tes- 
timony. There stand the Elders in Israel, and he was the last one 
of the great leaders alive. Moses was gone; Aaron was gone; he 
was the only man that was at Mount Sinai, when the law was given 
from on high. They stood around his bedside, and heard his dying 
testimony. How it shined out! "Behold this day I am going 
the way of all the earth; and ye know in your hearts and in your 
souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things that the 
Lord your God spoke concerning you." Is not that a high tribute? 
Had not God kept his word to them? The old warrior is going to 
rest, and this is his dying testimony: " Not one thing has failed. All 
things have been fulfilled." That is what the man has said who has 
tried God. Infidels won't try God, and of course they do not have 
such a peaceful end as the man who has taken God at his word. 

Let us look over the six one things. "One thing thou lackest." 
Do you lack Christ? Oh, take him to-day! "One thing I know." 
Do you know you have got Christ? If you do not, do not go out of 
this house to-day without knowing it; step into the inquiry- 
room and talk with some of the Christian men and women who know 
they have salvation. Make up your mind you will not leave this 
house to-day till you can look up and read your " title clear to man- 
sions in the sky." I would rather do that than have a title to all 
New York. I would rather have some poor soul, that I have won 
from this dark world to Christ, come and weep over my grave when 
I am gone, than to have a monument of pure gold reaching from 
earth to the skies. The next "one thing" is the "one thing that is 
needful." " One is your master," " Not one thing has failed," and 
" One thing 1 do." It in the privilege of each one to have all these 
u one things" and to know that you have them. 



REAPING WHAT WE SOW. 

"Be not deceived: God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that, shall he also 
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth 
to the Spirit, shall of tne Spirit reap life everlasting. 1 ' Galatians 6: 7, 8. 

It very easy for us to deceive ourselves and one another, and 
there is a good deal of deception in the world. But we cannot de- 
ceive God. 

When we try to deceive him, we are thinking all the time that 
he is like us. We are told in Jermiah that " the heart is deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked." Any man who leans on 
his own understanding will be deceived. How many times have we 
deceived others, and because we succeeded in doing so, thought we 
could deceive God; but we cannot do it. You may mock us; but 
whatever you do in that way, don't mock God. I was reading, some 
time ago, of a young man who had just come out of a saloon, and 
had mounted his horse. As a certain deacon passed on his way to 
church, he followed the deacon and said, " Deacon, can you tell me 
how far it is to hell?" The deacon's heart was pained, to think that 
a young man like that should talk so lightly; he passed on and said 
nothing. When he came round the corner to the church, he found 
that the horse had thrown that young man, and he was dead. So 
you may be nearer the Judgment than you think. Now, in the first 
place, a man expects to reap. That is true in the natural world; 
men are sowing and planting, and what for? Why, to reap. And so 
it holds true, you will find, in the spiritural world. Not only that, 
when he sows he expects to reap more than he sows, and the same 
that he sows. If he sows wheat, he doesn't expect to get potatoes; 
if he wants wheat he sows wheat. If a man learns the trade of a car- 
penter, he don't expect to be a blacksmith. It says in the fifth 
chapter of Matthew: " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
be comforted. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mer- 
cy." See how God has dealt with the nations. See if they have 
not reaped what they sowed. What has become of the monarchs and 
empires of the world? What brought ruin on Babylon? Why, her 
king and people would not obey God, and ruin came upon them. 
What has become of Greece and all its power? It once ruled the 
world. What has become of Rome and all its greatness? When 
their cup of iniquity was full, it was dashed to the ground. What 
has become of the Jews? They rejected salvation, persecuted God's 
messengers, and crucified their Redeemer; and we find eleven hun- 
dred thousand of them perished at one time. Oh, my friends, it is 
360 



REAPING WHAT WE SOW. 30 1 

only a question of time. Look at the history of this country. With 
an open Bible, our forefathers planted slavery; but judgment came 
at last. There is not a family North or South that has not had to 
mourn over some one taken from them. Instead of that war hum- 
bling us, how defiant we became. Look and see how crime has in- 
creased during the past few years. Ah, this fair republic will go to 
pieces, if there is not more righteousness; it will perish like the other 
nations, if we don't repent in time. I happened to be in France in 
1867, and I confess I could not tell the difference between Sunday 
and any other day; and did not God punish France for her sins? 
She went down from her high station, very quickly. But a few 
years ago, she stood shoulder to shoulder with the leading nations of 
the earth. Why have those nations fallen? Just because God made 
them reap what they sowed. Now if a man sows for this life, 
why, he will reap in this life; and if he sows for eternity, he will 
reap in eternity. If he sows to the Spirit, he will have his harvest 
up yonder. If he sows to the flesh, he will reap disappointment and 
despair; he will reap gloom and death and hell; but if he sows to 
the Spirit, he will reap joy and peace and long-suffering and glad- 
ness, for these are the fruits of the Spirit; and not only that, but he 
has everlasting life. Now just ask yourself to-night what are you 
sowing? Are you sowing for time, or are you sowing for eternity? 
Are you sowing good seed, or are you sowing bad seed? 

You must remember, the judgment sometimes comes down very 
suddenly, and sometimes it is deferred; but all through Scripture, we 
find that God deals in grace before he deals in judgment. Now, last 
night I showed that God dealt in judgment with Lot, and what a bit- 
ter end his was. Just take up your Bible, and all through it you will 
see that God deals in grace and government. Take that priest of 
his, Eli; he had two sons who didn't care for God. He failed to 
bring them up right. They sold what was offered to God, and be- 
came very wealthy; but they were slain in battle against the Philis- 
tines, and Eli himself, when he heard the news, fell back and broke 
his neck. God sent a message twenty years before that sentence 
was carried out, that judgment would come. Look at the sons of 
Jacob. They sold Joseph and deceived their father. Twenty long 
years rolled away, and away down in Egypt their sin followed them; 
for they said: "We are guilty of the blood of our brother." The 
reaping time had come at last, for those ten boys that sold their 
brother. If God will punish his own priest, Eli, one of his own chil- 
dren, won't he punish those who have not accepted the offer of sal- 
vation? Mr. Moody proceeded at length to show that Jacob and 
David, though children of God, were severely judged in this life for 
their sins. So keep this in mind, that God has got a government. 
He may forgive us, he may give us eternal life; but it is the law of 
high heaven that a man must reap what he sows. 



362 REAPING WHAT WE SOW. 

Now bear in mind that these three men were men of grace. We 
will see them in heaven, there is no doubt about that. 

Now some of you will say: "If God is going to forgive me my 
sins, how does he make me reap what I have sown?" Well, I will 
illustrate it. Suppose I send out a man to sow wheat; he neglects 
to do his duty well, and sows tares. When the wheat grows up, I find 
it out and call him to account. "Well, to be honest with you," he 
says, " I got mad and sowed a lot of tares; but I am very sorry for it." 
I forgive him for sowing the tares, but when the reaping time comes, 
I make him reap them. Why, one of those men who spoke here to- 
day was a drunkard for thirty years. I have no doubt his sins are 
forgiven; but oh! how he is reaping what he has sown! His wife and 
his children are away from him; he has not seen his little boy for fif- 
teen years! I see a man in this audience to-night, and oh! how he 
is reaping, how I pity him. A few months ago, he was in a happy 
home in England. He gambled his employer's money all away, and 
now he is an exile, a stranger in a strange land. God may forgive 
him, but he must reap what he has sown. Some men think that is 
hard, but it can't be otherwise. 

I tried to help a poor man in Philadelphia. He had been in prison ; 
and I could not help but try to lift him up. He betrayed my confi- 
dence, so we don't know whom to help. Now suppose here is a 
father; he has got a boy who has gone out and stolen some money. 
His conscience is thoroughly roused, and he goes and confesses it. 
"Yes, my boy," the father says, "I will forgive you, but you must 
go and confess it." He don't want to do that, but he must do it; he 
has got to reap what he has sown. Do you think God would pun- 
ish Jacob and his own children, and let unbelieving sinners go un- 
punished? Do you think the ten thousand rumsellers of New York 
are not going to be punished? I would not take the place of one of 
them, if you gave me all the world. Look at that little, weak, pale, 
thin girl, only six or seven years old; she went into a saloon and 
went to the bar, and said to the saloon-keeper: "Oh, sir, don't sell 
papa any more liquor, for we are starving." The rum-seller ordered 
her out. You think there was no God to witness that? Oh, there is 
a just God yonder, and men are going to be gathered there to give 
an account of their stewardship, by-and-by. Do you think that lib- 
ertine, who has gone and lied to that lady, and then ruined her and 
fled — do you think he is going unpunished? He may escape the law 
on earth; but he will be tried at God's bar, be bound hand and foot, 
-and cast into hell. There is a day of grace now. He will forgive 
you the sin, though he will make you reap what you sow. He will 
give you your eternal life, if you will only come to him and confess 
your sin, and is it not the very best thing you can do to come to God 
to-night? 



SOWING AND REAPING. 

"One soweth and another reapeth." Johk 4: 87. 

Mr Moody alluded to a feeling which some of the young converts 
entertained toward ministers and churches which prompted them to 
adverse criticism, and proceeded to say: I have very little sympathy 
with these men who talk about the coldness of the churches. It is 
well enough for men who are hard at work in the church to talk 
about it. I contend that the best institution under heaven is the 
church. I have always been a member of the church; and if ever I 
get out of it, I will have to be put out. Christ died to redeem the 
church ; and every man who is true to Christ ought to support it. 
Did you ever think what this city would be, if not for the church? 
There would not be a man's life safe in the city. The church is the 
place where God meets and blesses his people. And to the young 
converts I would say, that the ministry of your churches have been 
sowing these many years. How many of you have had religious 
training? A few nights ago I asked those who had, to rise; and 
nineteen out of every twenty present rose. Of course, it is a pleasure 
to reap; but he that soweth and he that reapeth are the same in the 
sight of God. We would all rather have the reaping than the sow- 
ing. Let us not go on complaining because these ministers have 
not had all the reaping. With regard to this work it may be that 
fifty people have had a hand in it. Perhaps first a mother, and then 
a Sabbath- school teacher, and then different ministers sowed the 
seed. Another thing I have noticed, that no man who has any 
standing in the church has ever come to want. People talk of the 
church not being benevolent; but I say they take care of their poor. 
It is the people whom the church has not reached that come to want. 
Some of you say you cannot afford to join the church — that you can- 
not afford to pay 810 a year for a pew. If you give up your cigars, 
and go less to the theatre, you will find it quite easy to do it. Let 
it be distinctly understood, my advice is, join some church at once. 
Go there, not for getting anything by it, but to do good. Go there, 
not to get your heart warmed, but go with your heart already 
warmed. Get some church home where you will get sympathy, and 
friends to take an interest in you; and let me tell you, you cannot 
find any truer, better friends than you will find among the ministers; 
the great majority of them are working for God and souls, and not 
for themselves. So, my advice is, just unite with the church, and 
then go to work. A good place for you to go to work is in the Sab- 
363 



364 SOWING AND REAPING. 

bath-school; and if you cannot find a class or scholars, go down into 
the lanes and alleys, and get them. The first day I went out in 
Chicago, I got eighteen; and for the first time found I had a talent, 
and could do something. It was not long before the building could 
not hold all that were brought. 

If you do this, it will be the cause of great blessing to your own 
soul. He that watereth, himself will be watered. My experience 
is, where young converts have gone to work they have grown in 
grace. Some think they have got to wait to be qualified; but it is 
not of the Spirit of Christ to be absorbing all the time — it is get 
and give. Now, suppose all the young converts go to work; sup- 
pose they go right away and gather up the little waifs, and take an 
interest in them — you have got to win them to yourself before you 
lead them to Christ — what a great work may be done. Little chil- 
dren very often make the best missionaries. Many a time have I 
seen one bring a father and a mother to the Sabbath-school. I 
don't believe in going about it for six weeks or six months. A 'good 
many, in a time of religious interest like this, are willing to take a 
hand, and say they will have another good time next year. What 
we want is this heart work which will continue day after day, and 
year after year. Just to encourage some of you, I will state my ex- 
perience of a boy's meeting. 

A mother lived in our district. As she lay dying of consumption, 
she sent for me; and when I came to see her, she said: "Mr. Moody, 
you know my husband, the father of my children, is dead, and my 
second husband don't get along very well with my eldest boy. 
When I am dead and gone I don't know what will become of my 
little boy. If you don't take an interest in him, I am afraid he will 
be lost." She made me promise that I would look after her boy. 
While she was sick, and after she died, the boy was nearly all the 
time on the streets. After she was buried two or three weeks, I 
missed the little boy from the Sunday-school. I asked if any one in 
the school knew where he was, to let me know. A day or two after, 
a boy came into the store where I was employed, and said he found 
out the little boy was a bell-boy in such a hotel — naming it. I went 
down to the hotel to look after him, and brought him out with me, 
and got him into a room alone with me, in the Young Men's Chris- 
tian association. I told him of the promise I made to his mother, 
and of her anxiety about him; but he sat there unmoved. At last, 
I told him about the Savior's love; then the tears trickled down his 
cheeks; his heart was touched, and we got down to pray together. 
Then I said to him; "I want you to make this a subject of prayer; 
don't give it up until you settle the question." That was the 3d of 
July. He tried to get a chance to pray alone, but he could not, so 
he went up five stories to the flat roof. There, about midnight, he 
cried to God for a new heart, while the bells were ringing, and the 



SOWING AND REAPING. 365 

cannons booming. Next morning, the Fourth of July, he came and 
told me how God had met him on the top of that hotel. The first 
thing he asked was, what he should do for the Savior. He started a 
meeting, and had about twelve boys; he got his Bible and read a 
few verses for them, and told them what Christ had done for him. 
A little German boy got up and said, " Why not Jesus do the same 
for him.'" The result was that a hundred and twenty-five boys be- 
longed to that meeting. The blessing it gave me was something 
wonderful. I turned my back upon business and became a different 
man; and the Lord has blessed me ever since. There is not a church 
in New York that would not hail such members. By the help of 
such converts, our churches would become healthy, vigorous and 
built up. I knew, years ago, a young man who was converted in 
our church. I gave him two little children to teach, and inside of 
twelve months he had seventy-five gathered off the streets. To-day, 
there is more interest in that class than any in America. Every year 
some of its members join the church. That young man goes to the 
houses, visits the parents, and gets them into the church. 

I would advise you, if the schools are already full, to get halls and 
gather these little children in. Just commence now; and instead of 
this work stopping, it will be only commenced. Look for fruit 
immediately. Sometimes you will have it, and sometimes God will 
make you wait. Then, let me give you one word about taking part 
in the prayer-meetings. A good many of them would be enlivened 
if you just took a part. Some men think they have no ability. A 
young convert told me he could speak very well at a railway meetr 
ing. If a man can talk well at a railway meeting, he can talk at a 
prayer-meeting. A good many are not welcomed because they talk 
too long. When you do talk, be sure that you say something. Have 
your Bible with you; or, if you have been converted, stand up and 
give thanks. I don't want you to stop there, however. Don't live 
on yotir own experience. You want to grow on in grace. Bring 
new things out of the Bible. Tell how God has blessed you, in sucn 
a portion of Scripture. I have known a great many to labor with at 
least one individual each day. I heard Mr. John Wanamaker, 
of Philadelphia, say that he would at least talk to one young man 
every day, about his soul. That would be three hundred and sixty- 
five labored with in the year. Are there not hundreds of young 
c nverts who could do that? Dear friends, God can use every one 
of us. One of the greatest mistakes we make is, when men are con- 
verted we get them into the church, but we don't teach them the 
luxury of working. Teach them how to work; that will take them 
out of the world quicker than anything else. We won't then have 
to be lecturing the church about this thing and that. The Lord will 
give them something better. 



OBSTACLES. 

Jesus said, " Take ye away the stone."— Johh 11 : 39. 

I want to call your attention for a few minutes this morning to a 
verse you have heard read in the 11th chapter of the Gospel accord- 
ing to John — a part of the 39th verse: "Jesus said, Take ye away 
the stone." Now I have not any doubt but nearly all this congregation 
are looking for a blessing in Chicago. I've no doubt that hundreds 
of you are expecting a great work here. If you are not so expecting, 
you ought to be; and if God does not do a great and mighty work 
here, it will not be his fault, but it will be our own. I find a class 
of people who say, Well, we must wait until God works, and when 
God is ready, we will see a great work. Now, if I read my Bible 
and understand Scripture, God is always ready. We talk about the 
"set time " for God to favor us. The set time is when you and I get 
ready to let God work for us, just when we choose to roll away 
the stones that prevent his coming to our souls. Some one must 
take away these stones, some one must roll them off, so the Lord, 
Redeemer, and Savior can get at us. There is no doubt but that 
He himself could send down legions of angels to clear away every 
single stone. If even the word of his mouth should go out, every 
stone-like obstacle in his path would suddenly disappear, just as 
Satan did from his presence in the wilderness. But God does not 
work in that way. He works through others. He did not himself 
roll away the stone from Lazarus' grave; he said to his disciples sur- 
rounding him, and to his disciples in all times, " Take ye away the 
stone." Now I find a great many men, and a great many wives, and 
a great many Christians, too, who ask God to roll away the stone; 
and because he does not answer their prayer, they throw the blame on 
God. Why, the blame is not his; it is theirs. God always works in 
partnership. When he is asked to do a thing, he can only do it when 
he first sees an active disposition in the asker to help to get the bles- 
sing. This failure to second God's work for us comes from unbelief. 
Such a half-hearted man does not believe God will grant his prayer, 
and so fails to carry out his own part of the programme. The moth- 
er that prays for the reclaiming of a drunken son, or a dissolute hus- 
band, must faithfully do her part to this end, and then must have 
full belief that God will do the rest. There is something for us all 
to do for our fellow creatures, and it is the stone of unbelief that 
blocks up the way, if we do not do it. And it is just this great stone 
that mttst first be rolled out of the way, in this city. Let us believe 
366 



OBSTACLES. 367 

that God can do a great work here; and that practical belief will make 
us work as we ought to. It will be a hard work, but with this lever 
of faith it can be done, and in short order. There must be honest 
work, a lifting up of one's self first as far as may be, and then a leav- 
ing of the rest to God, whose word will completely roll the stone away 
and raise the dead. And what a need there is for this resurrection 
in all our souls. How dead cur sense of sin! How forgetful that 
iniquity cannot live in our heart and word and act! How careless 
and indifferent even to have things anywise different than they are I 
Is the fault God's? No; the only trouble is with ourselves; we 
will not ask him that he will help us to do better things. We 
do not want to do them. How lukewarm the love of God in our 
hearts, and how selfish and cold, in consequence, our thoughts to- 
ward our neighbor! It is a wonder to me how long our standard 
can fly, and yet we can profess to be Christians. Do we not need to 
cry that God will revive us? Yes; it is we ourselves that must first 
be quickened! Our own hearts — those of us who profess to be 
Christians — must feel anew the joys of sins forgiven, and a re-kind- 
ling of the early fires of faith and holy living. Only thus can good 
influences be made effectual on those outside. I have heard many 
complain of the answer of prayer being withheld, when the secret 
lay just here. A woman, though a professing Christian, need not 
pray for her husband's conversion if she be governed by an evil 
temper. She need not talk, even to God, about her husband until 
she gets command of her railing tongue and wicked looks. If you 
are not Christ-like in your behavior, you need not expect to be 
taken for an example by your godless neighbor. He will not im- 
itate you, even if he does not despire you for your hollow professions. 
I recall an illustration used by my dear friend Morehouse, when he 
was in this city. The Apostle Paul stood with the gathering crowd 
about the fire, warming himself after the shipwreck, when, as they 
piled the wood on the fire, a viper sprang from the flame and fas- 
tened itself on his hand. Immediately the gaping crowd cried out 
that he was a reprobate, whom, though he had escaped the waves r 
vengeance would not let live. But presently Paul shook the viper 
from his hand into the fire, when they, seeing he did not die, 
changed their opinion entirely, and Paul preached to them the sav- 
ing word of life. The apostle shook off the viper, and the confidence 
of men flowed out to him. Let us Christians all imitate this grand 
example; let us shake off, with God's help, the vipers of evil tem- 
per, and all the evil things that make our Christianity a nullity, and 
too often a reproach in the eyes of those we would call to a like 
name and inheritance with ourselves. And, as a community as well, 
we must shake off the venomous beast, whose poison not only repels 
others, but kills and enfeebles ourselves. 

The vipers of London are different from those of New York; and,. 



368 



OBSTACLES. 



again, our own are unlike either of these. Covetousness, the inordi- 
nate greed for gain, has fastened on the hand of Chicago, along with 
many another Western city; and the sting will be worse and worse 
unless a remedy is found for us. We talk with an appetite much 
too keen about getting gain and the chances of money-making. 
And yet this very trait, confessedly an evil, is an argument to our 
hand. There is a cry in commercial circles, loud and prolonged, 
for a revival in business — all classes of business. In this country, during 
the past twenty years, I never heard any one crying out against it. But 
if you talk about getting a revival in God's business, there is a class of 
people who at once shake their heads. They do not know about it; thev 
are afraid it won't work. A strange inconsistency; a thing is all 
Tight in their own concerns, but all wrong in God's. The two things 
are not different at all, for the purposes of this comparison. God's 
work, like man's work, may have stages of activity; and the Chris- 
tian just as much as the merchant, should seek earnestly for a re- 
vival in trade. Oh, let us roll away this stone of unbelief and 
indifference, and we will soon hear a voice from the place of the 
stone crying, " Lazarus, come forth." Let us only cry as earnestly 
and loud for a revival as our business men have done and are now 
doing; and the powers and affections of our souls will spring up 
and bloom to eternal life. Our quickened souls and those of our 
friends will be made glad thereat, and rejoice together in time andeter^ 
nity Should no right time come in God's fields, when can the far- 
mer have his harvest time? How active the farmers are in getting 
hands to help them through the rush. The right time does come 
periodically in the kingdom of heaven upon earth — a ripening time, 
when God calls his reapers to put in their sickles. 

The three stones I will especially refer to this morning, or mountains, 
If you prefer — for that is what they are — to be rolled from our caves 
before the dead Lazarus, quickened to life, can come forth. , A great 
stone to be rolled away is unbelief, already spoken of. If I ask the 
Christian man in Chicago, Do you believe God can revive this work? 
I do not want him to say: "I do not believe he can; I have been 
here about fifteen years, and during all that time there has not been 
a successful attempt at reviving his work." Well, it may be so that 
the work has not got on well. What was the trouble? Well, I be- 
lieve it was simply because people did not believe the work could 
really be done. But surely there is no person in the town but knows 
that everything is possible with God. Let us take this stand, to be- 
lieve that God is actually going to do something. There is no 
drunkard who should despair, for I believe that God is going to save 
hundreds of them. He can and he will destroy his love of strong 
drink, root and branch, and I believe there is to be a cleansing 
thunderstorm in this atmosphere here before many days. 

When in Glasgow, a skeptic insisted that all my converts were 



OBSTACLES. 369 

women and old men verging on the grave. At the next meeting in 
that city there were present in the hali thirty- three hundred men, 
and of these twenty-seven hundred were young men. The skeptic 
next insisted that not a wild or reckless or drunken man came under 
God's reviving influence. At the next meeting a gambler, and a 
short time afterwards the most notorious drunkard in town, expe- 
rienced saving grace. And so let it be here. We want to see 
thieves, gamblers, and harlots saved. Let us have faith, for accord- 
ing to our faith shall it be done to us; just as Martha saw Lazarus 
alive through trust in Jesus' words. If we believe, we are told that 
we may order mountains to be removed and they will be cast into 
the sea. Oh, may God strike down our unbelief, to the resurrection 
to life of even the vilest sinners in this city. 

The next terrible stone to be rolled away is prejudice. Oh, how 
came that in among the churches against revivals? How many men 
you hear say: "Well, I am prejudiced against revivals. I do not 
believe in them." They believe in revivals in everything else. They 
say: "Agitate politics and trade, and let us have a revival in every- 
thing else but religion." So, many whom I have addressed here on 
this subject have inveighed against revivals in religion, shaking their 
heads and saying no good can come out of revivals. Well, my dear 
friends, when Philip, the sage deacon, went to Nathaniel to tell him 
about Jesus, and Nathaniel objected, could any good come out of 
Nazareth, he just answered, "Come and see." So I answer you, 
Come and see. Spend a week waiting on God, and see if the work 
is not to be a power of God to the saving of many. " Oh," but some 
one may say, " I cannot countenance these unhealthy excitements. 
I know far too much bad about them for that." My friend, I know 
far more of the possible evils you would shun, and know them to be 
sometimes real ones; but what of it? Because some revivals turn 
out to be useless, or in some developments positively bad, must the 
system be thrown aside? No. The Democrat does not desert his 
politics for some minor flaw about them; and the Republican does 
not either, if some of his standard-bearers have done corruptly. Pro- 
fessional and business men are not degraded by the shortcomings of 
individuals, and all through and through there is seen to be no limit 
in this principle. God's mighty engine in revivals is not to be 
thrown aside for even considerable defects. Under its operations 
time was when 3,000 men were added to the church in one day. We 
cannot speak against these special meetings, finally, for they are 
planned in Scripture. The Bible is full of chronicles of their work- 
ings. They are developments of the Christian idea, no innovation 
whatever, and the best possible agencies for work for sinners, which 
is work for God. 

And then this miserable sectarian spirit that once held despotic 
hold on men. There was a time when its grasp was that of iron; 
24 



370 OBSTACLES. 

but, blessed be God, the time is past. I remember, fifteen years ago, 
the Methodist insisted that he was a Methodist, although lending a 
hand to the revival then in progress; the Congregation alist was 
nothing else, through and through, though, he, too, co-operated 
in the good work; and the Presbyterian and the Baptist, and all, 
were first of all their denominational selves, though condescending for 
a few days to work in yoke in a common cause. Yet it was really 
and necessarily condescension; and there was enough of it in those 
meetings to kill them, and it nearly did it. And this sectarian stone 
is a real stone, though nothing like the boulder it used to be. The 
rolling-away process must be pushed vigorously; let us heave it away 
altogether out of sight. Let us have none of that spirit in this meet- 
ing. Talk not of this sect and that sect, this party and that party; 
but solely and exclusively of the great, comprehensive cause of Jesus 
Christ. When Christ came into the world, had he allied himself with 
the Sadducees, they would have warmly upheld him, if he had joined 
the Pharisees, they would not have let him be crucified ; but he kept clear 
of them; and just so we should do in this glorious work opening before 
us. In this ideal brotherhood there should be one faith, one mind, one 
spirit; and in this city let us starve it out for a season, to actualize 
this glorious truth. You remember how, in the Old Testament,. 
Eldad and Medad took upon themselves priestly duties, and how ex- 
cited for once in his life Joshua became at the irregularity, and ran 
and told the scandal to Moses; but you also remember how Moses 
reproved his informant, who was then engaged in perhaps the only 
small business of his life, and told him to rebuke them not: they 
prophesied well, however irregularly. It was just so with Christ; 
when word was carried by over-serviceable followers that men were 
casting out devils, who "were not of us," he rebuked, not those who 
were thus benefiting their kind, but the talebearers. Oh, yes; let us 
sink this party feeling and contend for Christ only. Oh that God 
may so fill us with his love and the love of souls, that no thought of 
minor sectarian parties can come in; that there may be no room for 
them in our atmosphere whatever; and that the Spirit of God may 
give us one mind and one spirit here to glorify his holy name. 



THE LORD'S SERVICE PAYS. 

"And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life."— John 4 : 36. 

I want to call your attention to the 4th chapter Gospel of St. John, 
and part of the 36th verse: "And he that reapeth receiveth wages 
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." I want you to get the text 
into your hearts. We have a thousand texts to every sermon ; but they 
slip over the hearts of men and women. If I can get this text into 
your hearts to-day, with the Spirit of God, these meetings will be the 
brightest and most glorious ever held in Chicago; for it is the word 
of the Lord, and his word is worth more than ten thousand sermons. 
" He that reapeth receiveth wages." I can speak from experience. 
I have been in the Lord's service for twenty-one years, and I want 
to testify that he is a good paymaster — that he pays promptly. Oh, 
I think I see faces before me light up at these words. You have 
been out in the harvest fields of the Lord, and you know this to be 
true. To go out and labor for him is a thing to be proud of — to guide 
a poor, weary soul to the way of life, and turn his face towards the 
golden gates of Zion. The Lord's wages are better than silver and 
gold, because he says that the loyal soul shall receive a crown of 
glory. If the Mayor of Chicago gave out a proclamation stating that 
he had work for men, women, and children of the city, and he would 
give them a dollar a day, people would say this was very good of the 
mayor. This money, however, would fade away in a short time. 
But here is a proclamation, coming directly from the throne of grace, 
to every man, woman, and child in the wide world to gather into 
God's vineyard, where they will find treasures that will never fade, 
and these treasures will be crowns of everlasting life; and the laborer 
will find treasures laid up in his Father's house, and then, after serv- 
ing faithfully here, he will be greeted by friends assembled there. 
Work for tens of thousands of men, women, and children! Think of 
it, and the reward! These little children, my friends, are apt to be 
overlooked; but they must be led to Christ. Children have done a 
great deal in the vineyard. They have led parents to Jesus. It was 
a little girl that led Naaman to Christ. Christ can find useful wonk 
for these little ones. He can see little things, and we ought to pay 
great attention to them. 

As I was coming along the street to-day, I thought that if I could 
only impress upon you all that we have come here as to a vineyard, 
to reap and to gather, we shall have a glorious harvest. And we 
371 



372 

want every class to assist us. The first class we want is the minis- 
ters. There was one thing that pleased me this morning, and that 
was the eight thousand people who came to this building, and the 
large number of ministers who seized me by the hand, with the tears 
trickling down their cheeks, and who gave me a " God bless you !" 
It gave me a light heart. There are some ministers who get behind 
the posts, as if they were ashamed of being seen in our company and 
of our meetings. They come to criticise the sermon and to pick it to 
pieces. No effort is required to do this. We don't want the minis- 
ters to criticise but to help us, and tell us when we are wrong. There 
was one minister in this city who did me a great deal of good when 
I first started out. When I commenced to teach the word of God, 
I made very many blunders. I have learned that in acquiring any- 
thing a man must make blunders. If a man is going to learn any kind 
of trade — carpenter's, plumber's, painter's — he will make any amount 
of mistakes. Well, this minister, an old man, used to take me aside 
and tell me my errors. So we want the ministers to come to us and 
tell us of our blunders; and if we get them to do this and join hands 
with us, a spiritual fountain will break over every church in the city. 
Many ministers have said to me, "What do you want us to do?" The 
Lord must teach us what our work shall be. Let every child of God 
come up to these meetings, and say: "Teach me, O God, what I can 
do to help these men and women who are inquiring the way to be 
saved," and at the close of the meetings, draw near to them and 
point out the way. If men and women are to be converted in great 
meetings, it is by personal dealings with them. What we want is 
personal contact with them. If a number of people were sick, and 
a doctor prescribed one kind of medicine for them all, you would 
think this was wrong. This audience is spiritually diseased, and 
what we want is that Christian workers will go to them and find out 
their trouble. Five minutes' private consultation will teach them. What 
we want is to get at the people. Every one has his own particular 
burden; every family has a different story to tell. Take the gospel 
of the Lord to them and show its application; tell them what to do 
with it, so as to answer their own cases; let the minister come into 
the inquiry room. 

An old man — a minister in Glasgow, Scotland — was one of the 
most active in our meetings. When he would be preaching else- 
where he would drive up in a cab with his Bible in his hand. It 
made no difference what part of Glasgow he was preaching in, he 
managed to attend nearly every one of our services. The old man 
would come in and tenderly speak to those assembled, and let one 
soul after another see the light. His congregation was compara- 
tively small when we got there; but, by his painstaking efforts to 
minister to those in search of the Word, when we left Glasgow his 
church could not hold the people who sought admission, and I do 



THE LORD'S SERVICE PAYS. 373 

not know of any man who helped us like Dr. Andrew Bonar. He 
was always ready to give the weak counsel, and point the way out to 
the soul seeking Christ. If we have not ministers enough, let those 
we have come forward, and their elders and deacons will follow them. 

The next class we want to help us to reach the people is the Sun- 
day-school teachers; and I value their experience next to that of the 
ministers. In the cities where we have been, teachers have come to 
me and said, "Mr. Moody, pray for my Sunday-school scholars; and 
I just took them aside and pointed out their duties, and showed 
of how they themselves ought to be able to pray for their pupils. 
Next meeting very often they would come and the prayer would go 
up from them, " God bless my scholars." 

In one city we went to, a Sunday-school superintendent came to 
his minister and said: "I am not fit to gather sinners to life eternal; 
I cannot be superintendent any longer." The minister asked, 
"What is the reason?" and the man said, "I am not right with God." 
Then the minister advised him that the best thing, instead of resign- 
ing, was to get right with God. So he prayed with that teacher that 
the truth would shine upon him; and God lit up his soul with the 
word. Before I left that town, the minister told me all doubt had 
fled from that superintendent's mind; and he had gone earnestly to 
work and gathered, from the time of his conversion, over six hun- 
dred scholars into the school of his church. The Lord can bless, of 
course, in spite of schools and teachers, but they are the channels of 
salvation. Bring your classes together, and pray to God to convert 
them. We have from three thousand to five thousand teachers here. 
Suppose they said: " I will try to bring my children to Christ," what 
a reformation we should have! Don't say that that boy is too small, 
or that girl is too puny or insignificant. Every one is valuable to 
the Lord. A teacher whom I found at our services when she ought 
to have been attending to her class, upon my asking why she was at 
our meeting, said: " Well, I have a very small class — only five little 
boys." " What," said I, " you have come here and neglected these 
little ones! Why, in that little tow-head may be the seeds of a refor- 
mation. There maybe a Luther, a Wheaton, a Wesley, or a Bunyan 
among them. You may be neglecting a chance for them, the effects 
of which will follow them through life." If you do not look to those 
things, teachers, some one will step into your vineyard and gather 
the riches you would have. 

Look what that teacher did in Southern Illinois. She had taught 
a little girl to love the Savior, and the teacher said to her, " Can't 
you get your father to come to the Sunday-school?" This father was a 
swearing, drinking man, and the love of God was not in his heart. 
But under the tuition of that teacher, the little girl went to her fa- 
ther, and told him of Jesus' love, and led him to that Sunday-school. 
What was the result? I heard, before leaving for Europe, that he 



374 the lord's service pays. 

had been instrumental in founding over seven hundred and eighty 
Sabbath-schools in Southern Illinois. And what a privilege a teacher 
has — a privilege of leading souls to Christ. Let every Sabbath- 
school teacher say: "By the help of God, I will try to lead my 
scholars to Christ." 

It seems to me that we have more help in our revivals from 
young men, except from mothers, than from any other class. The 
young men are pushing, energetic workers. Old men are good for 
counsel; and they should help, by their good words, the young men 
in making Christianity aggressive. These billiard halls have been 
open long enough. There is many a gem in those places, that only 
needs the way pointed out to fill their souls with love of him. Let 
the young men go plead with them, bring them to the Tabernacle, 
and don't let them go out without presenting the claims of Christ, 
and show them his never-dying love. Take them by the hand and 
say, " I want you to become a Christian." What we want is a hand- 
to-hand conflict with the billiard saloons and drinking halls. Do 
not fear, but enter them and ask the young men to come. I know 
that some of you say, in a scornful way: " We will never be allowed 
to enter; the people who go there will cast us out." This is a mis- 
take. I know that I have gone to them and remonstrated, and have 
never been unkindly treated. And some of the best workers have 
been men who have been proprietors of these places, and men who 
have been constant frequenters. There are young men there break- 
ing their mother's hearts, and losing themselves for all eternity. 
The spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ asks you to seek them out. If 
we cannot get them to come here, let the building be thrown aside, 
and let us go down and hunt them up, and tell them of Christ and 
heaven. If we cannot get a multitude to preach to, let us preach, 
even if it be to one person. Christ preached one of his most won- 
derful sermons to that woman at the well; and shall we not be will- 
ing to go to one, as he did, and tell that one of salvation? And let 
us preach to men, even if they are under the influence of liquor. 

I may relate a little experience. In Philadelphia, at one of our 
meetings, a drunken man rose up. Till that time I had no faith 
that a drunken man could be converted. When any one approached, 
he was generally taken out. This man got up and shouted, "I want 
to be prayed for." The friends who were with him tried to draw 
him away, but he shouted only louder; and for three times he re- 
peated his request. His call was attended to, and he was converted. 
God has power to convert a man even if he is drunk. 

I have still another lesson. I met a man in New York, who was 
an earnest worker, and I asked him to tell me his experiences. He 
said he had been a drunkard for over twenty years. His parents 
had forsaken him; and his wife had cast him off, and married some 
one else. He went into a lawyer's office in Poughkeepsie, mad with 



THE LORD'S SERVICE PAYS. 375 

drink. This lawyer proved a good Samaritan, and reasoned with 
him, and told him he could be saved. The man scouted the idea. 
He said: "I must be pretty low when my father and mother, my 
wife and kindred, cast me off; and there is no hope for me, here or 
hereafter." But this good Samaritan showed him how it was possible 
to secure salvation; got him on his feet, got him on his beast, like 
the good Samaritan of old, and guided his face toward Zion. And 
this man said to me, " I have not drank a glass of liquor since." 
He is now leader of a young men's meeting in New York. I asked 
him to come up last Saturday night to Northfield, my native town, 
where there are a good many drunkards, thinking he might encour- 
age them to seek salvation. He came, and brought a young man 
with him. They held a meeting, and it seemed as if the power of 
God rested upon that meeting when these two men went on telling 
what God had done for them — how he had destroyed the works of 
the devil in their hearts, and brought peace and unalloyed happiness 
to their souls. These grog shops here are the works of the devil — 
they are ruining men's souls every hour. Let us fight against 
them, and let our prayers go up in our battle, " Lord, manifest thy 
power in Chicago this coming month." It may seem a very diffi- 
cult thing for us, but it is very easy for God to convert rumsellers. 

A young man in New York got up and thrilled the meeting with 
his experience. "I want to tell you," he said, "that nine months 
ago a Christian came to my house and said he wanted me to become 
a Christian. He talked to me kindly and encouragingly, pointing 
out the error of my ways, and I became converted. I had been a 
hard drinker; but since that time I have not touched a drop of liquor. 
If any one had asked who the most hopeless man in that town was, 
they would have pointed to me." To-day this young man is the 
superintendent of a Sabbath-school. Eleven years ago, when I went 
to Boston, I had a cousin who wanted a little of my experience. I 
gave him all the help I could, and he became a Christian. He did 
not know how near death was to him. He wrote to his brother and 
said : " I am very anxious to get your soul to Jesus." The letter 
somehow went to another city, and lay from the 28th of February to 
the 28th of March — just one month. He saw it was in his brother's 
handwriting, and tore it open and read the above words. It struck 
a chord in his heart, and was the means of converting him. And 
this was the Christian who led this drunken young man to Christ. 
This young man had a neighbor who drank for forty years, and he 
'went to that neighbor and told him what God had done for him, and 
the result was another conversion* I tell you these things to encour- 
age you to believe that the drunkards and saloon-keepers can be 
saved. There is work for you to do; and by and by the harvest 
shall be gathered, and what a scene will be on the shore when we 
hear the Master on the throne shout, " Well done ! Well done !" 



376 the lord's service pays. 

Let me say a word to you, mothers. We depend a good deal upon 
you. It seems to me that there is not a father and mother in all 
Chicago who should not be in sympathy with this work. You have 
daughters and sons; and if work is done now, they will be able to 
steer clear of many temptations, and will be able to lead better lives 
here. It seems to me selfishness if they sit down inactive and say: 
" There is no use in this. We are safe ourselves; what is the use 
of troubling?" If the mothers and the fathers of the whole commu- 
nity would unite their prayers, and send up appeals to God to mani- 
fest his power, in answer to them there would be mighty work. 

I remember in Philadelphia we wanted to see certain results, and 
we called a meeting of mothers. There were from five to eight 
thousand mothers present, and each of them had a particular burden 
upon her heart. There was a mother who had a wayward daughter, 
another a reckless son, and another a bad husband. We spoke to 
them confidently, and we bared our hearts to one another. They 
prayed for aid from the Lord, and that grace might be shown to these 
sons and daughters and husbands; and the result was that our in- 
quiry-rooms were soon filled with anxious and earnest inquirers. 

Let me tell about a mother in Philadelphia. She had two way- 
ward sons. They were wild, dissipated youths. They were to meet 
on a certain night and join in dissipation. The rendezvous was at 
the corner of Market and Thirteenth streets, were our meetings were 
held. One of the young men entered the large meeting, and when 
it was over went to the young men's meeting near at hand, and was 
quickened, and there prayed that the Lord might save him. His 
mother had gone to the meeting that night, and, arriving too late 
found the door closed. When that young man went home, he found 
his mother praying for him; and the two mingled their prayers to- 
gether. While they were praying together the other brother came 
from the other meeting, and brought tidings of being converted; 
and at the next meeting the three got up and told their experience, 
and I never heard an audience so thrilled before or since. 

Another incident. A wayward boy in London, whose mother was 
very anxious for his salvation, said to her: "I am not going to be 
bothered with your prayers any longer; I will go to America, and be 
rid of them." " But, my boy," she said, " God is on the sea, and in 
America; and he hears my prayers for you." Well, he came to this 
country; and as they sailed into the port of New York some of the 
sailors told him that Moody and Sankey were holding their meet- 
ings in the Hippodrome. The moment he landed he started for our 
place of meeting, and there he found Christ. He became a most 
earnest worker, and he wrote to his mother and told her that her 
prayers had been answered; that he had been saved, and that he had 
found his mother's God. 



THE LORD'S SERVICE PAYS. 37? 

Mothers and fathers, lift up your hearts in prayer, that there may 
be hundreds of thousands saved in this city. 

When I was in London, there was one lady dressed in black up in 
the gallery. All the rest were ministers. I wondered who that lady 
could be. At the close of the meeting I stepped up to her, and she 
asked me if I did not remember her. I did not; but she told me 
who she was, and her story came to my mind. When we were 
preaching in Dundee, Scotland, a mother came up with her two sons, 
16 and 17 years old. She said to me, " Will you talk to my boys?" 
I asked her if she would talk to the inquirers, and told her there 
were more inquirers than workers. She said she was not a good 
enough Christian — was not prepared enough. I told her I could not 
talk to her then. Next night she came to me and asked me again; 
and the following night she repeated her request. Five hundred 
miles she journeyed to get God's blessing for her boys. Would to 
God we had more mothers like her. She came to London; and the 
first night I was there, I saw her in the Agricultural Hall. She was 
accompanied by only one of her boys — the other had died. Towards 
the close of the meetings I received this letter from her: 

44 Dear Mr. Moody : For months I have never considered the day's work 
ended unless you and your work had been specially prayed for. Now it ap- 
pears before us more and more. What in our little measure we have found 
has no doubt been the happy experience of many others in London. My hus- 
band and I have sought as our greatest privilege to take our unconverted friends 
one by one to the Agricultural Hall; and I thank God that, with a single ex- 
ception, those brought under the preaching from your lips have accepted 
Christ as their Savior, and are rejoicing in his love." 

That lady was a lady of wealth and position. She lived a little 
way out of London; gave up her beautiful home and took lodgings 
near the Agricultural Hall, so as to be useful in the inquiry-room. 
When we went down to the Opera House, she was there; when we 
went down to the east end, there she was again; and when I left 
London, she had the names of 150 who had accepted Christ from 
her. Some said that our work in London was a failure. Ask her if 
the work was a failure, and she will tell you. If we had a thousand 
such mothers in Chicago, we would lift it. Go and bring your 
friends here to the meetings. Think of the privilege, my friends r 
of saving a soul. If we are going to work for good we must be up 
and about it. .Men say, "I have not the time." Take it. Ten 
minutes every day for Christ will give you good wages. There is 
many a man who is working for you; take them by the hand. Some 
of you with silver locks, I think I hear you saying: "I wish I was 
young; how I would rush into the battle." Well, if you cannot be 
a fighter, you can pray and lead on the others. There are two kinds 
of old people in the world. One grows chilled and sour; and there 
are others who light up every meeting with their genial presence, 
and cheer on the workers. Draw near, old age, and cheer on the 



378 CHARITY. 

others, and take them by the hand and encourage them. There was a 
building on fire. The flames leaped around the staircase, and from 
a three-story window a little child was seen who cried for help. The 
only way to reach it was by a ladder. One was obtained and a fire- 
man ascended; but when he had almost reached the child, the flames 
broke from the window and leaped around him. He faltered, and 
seemed afraid to go further. Suddenly some one in the crowd 
shouted, "Give him a cheer;" and cheer after cheer went up. The 
fireman was nerved with new energy, and rescued the child. Just 
so with our young men. Whenever you see them wavering, cheer 
them on. If you cannot work yourself, give them cheers to nerve 
them on in their glorious work. May the blessing of God fall upon 
us this afternoon, and let every man and woman be up and doing. 



CHARITY. 

" Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and hare not charity, I am he- 
come as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.''' 1 Cokinthians 13: 1. 

You will find the text in the 1st verse of the chapter I read this 
evening — 1st Corinthians, 13th chapter: "Though I speak with the 
tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become 
as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." You, I have no doubt, 
wondered how it is that you have not met with more success. I 
think if I have asked myself this question once, I have a thousand 
times: " Why is it that I have not had greater success?" But I 
never read this chapter without finding it out. It is a chapter that 
every Christian ought to read at least once a week, I think, with a 
great deal of profit. A man may be a preacher and have all the 
•eloquence of a Demosthenes — he may be the greatest pulpit orator 
that ever lived; but if love is not the motive power, " it is as sound- 
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal." A good many churches have elo- 
quent ministers. The people go there, and listen critically and 
closely; but there are no converts. They have wondered why? 
The cause has been the lack of love. If a minister has not got love 
deep in his heart, you may as well put a boy in the pulpit and make 
him beat a big drum. His talking is like the "sounding of brass." 

Failures to make converts in those churches are common; and the 
reason so many preachers have failed is, because love has not been 



CHARITY. 379 

the motive power. The prophet may understand prophecy, and in- 
terpret it in such a clear way as to astonish you. I have met men 
and sat down beside them, and they would dig out the most wonder- 
ful truths out of prophecy, which I could not see. I have sat at 
their feet and wondered at their power in this respect, and won- 
dered also why it was that they were not blessed with more converts. 
I have sought the cause, and invariably found it was want of love. 
A man, though he is deep in learning and in theology, if he has no 
love in his heart he will do no good. A man may understand all the 
mysteries of life, may be wonderful in seeking out truths, yet may 
not be blessed by winning men. Paul says that though a man un- 
derstand all mysteries, if he have no love his understanding goes for 
nothing; and he goes a step further and says that a man may give 
large sums to feed the poor, but if love does not accompany the gift 
it goes for naught in the sight of God. The only fruit on the tree 
of life worth the having is love. Love must be the motive power. 
A man may give his thousands to the poor and get the gift written 
about in the paper, where you will see that he is a good philan- 
thropic man; yet if love does not prompt the deed, it goes for noth- 
ing in God's sight. Many a man here is very liberal to the poor. 
If you ask him for a donation to a charitable purpose, he draws his 
purse and puts down $1,000; if you come to him for a subscription 
for this or that theological seminary, he will draw his check instantly; 
but God looks down into that man's heart; and if he has no love it 
goes for nothing. Some men would give everything they have — 
would give their body for what they think is a good cause — for 
some truth they've got hold of; yet there is no love in the act. 

The main teaching of this chapter is, that love must be the mo- 
tive power in all our actions. If our actions are merely performed 
out of a sense of duty, God will not accept us. I've heard this word 
duty in connection with Christian work till I am tired of it. I have 
come down to a meeting, and some one has got up and asked a 
brother to get up and speak. After considerable persuasion, he has 
got up on his feet and said: "Well, I did not intend to speak when 
I came down to-night; but I suppose it is my duty to say something." 
And it is the same with the Sunday-school; many teachers take up 
classes from a sense of duty. There is no love in them, and their 
services go for nothing. Let us strike for a higher plane — let us 
throw a little love into our actions; and then our services will be ac- 
cepted by God, if love will be the motive power. 

I have an old mother, away down in the Connecticut mountains 
and I have been in the habit of going to see her every year for twen- 
ty years. Suppose I go there and say: "Mother, you were very kind 
to me when 1 was young — you were very good to me; when father 
died, you worked hard for us all to keep us together, and so I have 
come to see you because it is my duty." I went, then, only be- 



380 CHARITY. 

cause it was my duty. Then she should say to me: "Well, my 
sou, if you only come to see me because it is your duty, you 
need not come again." And that is the way with a great many 
of the servants of God. They work for him because it is their duty 
— not for love. Let us abolish this word duty, and feel that it is 
only a privilege to work for God; and let us try to remember that 
what is done merely from a sense of duty is not acceptable to God. 

One night, when I had been speaking in this way in London, a 
minister said to me after services: "Now, Moody, you are all wrong. 
If you take this word duty out from its connection with your works, 
you will soon have all the churches and Sunday-schools empty." 
" Well," said I, " I will try and convince you that I am all right. 
You are married?" "Yes." "Well, suppose this was your wife's 
birthday, and you bought a present of a book for her, and you went 
home and said: l Now, my wife, this is your birthday; I have felt it 
my duty to buy something for you — here's a book; take it.' Would 
your wife not be justified in refusing it?" "Well, I think you are 
correct; she would be right in refusing it." That wife would want 
a present given her through love, not duty. What Christ wants is, 
that we will work for him because we love him. The first impulse 
of a young convert is to love; and if a young man attempts to talk 
to people without he has been won to Christ by love — without he 
has been converted by the true spirit of the Holy Ghost — his efforts 
fall short of their mark. If he has been touched to the heart with the 
love of Jesus, the first thing he does is to shout out that love, which 
is waiting for all hearts. Paul, in the fifth chapter of Galatians, 
tells you that the fruit of the Spirit is " love, joy, peace, long-suf- 
fering." That is the fruit of the Spirit. He commences this line 
with love at the head of the list; and if love is not the motive, we 
have not been born of the Spirit. 

Let us ask ourselves the question: "Is love the motive power that 
urges us to go out and work for God?" This is the first question 
that we ought to ask ourselves. Without it a great deal of work 
will go for naught. The work will be swept away like chaff without 
it. Christ looks down and examines our hearts and actions; and al- 
though our deeds may be great in the eyes of the world, they may 
not be in his eyes. 

Look at that woman in Jerusalem. All the rich people were cast- 
ing in their treasures to the Lord. I can see the women and men 
come into the temple, some giving $100, others giving $300, and oth- 
ers putting in $500; and if there had been newspapers in Jerusalem 
in those days, there would have been notices of these contributions. 
It would have sounded very well in print. But by and by a poor 
widow woman comes along and puts in a humble two mites. I can 
see the Lord sitting at the treasury when that woman comes with her 
little all, and hear him saying: " That woman hath given more than 



CHARITY. 381 

all of them." Why? Not owing to the large amount — no; but sim- 
ply because it was love that prompted that woman. 

The one great thing that the church lacks at the present day, and 
if you ask me to put it into as small space as possible I can put it into 
four letters — and that is, "Love." Show me a church in which the 
members love one another, and I will show you a church that is on 
fire in the cause of Christ. In it there is a revival every day for the 
twelve months of the year — the 365 days of the year are filled with 
continual manifestations of Christ's love. That is the lack to-day. 
There is lukewarmness — coldness one toward another. In 2d Titus 
Paul tells what Christians' lives should be — sound in faith, sound in 
love, and sound in patience. If a man is not sound in faith, we 
would draw his head right off; if he is not sound in faith, put him 
out. But let him be ever so unsound in love, he will be kept in. 
How many men are here in Chicago who are in churches, and who 
are continually picking to pieces and slandering their brothers. He 
is continually going about finding fault with some one; he has no 
love. Those who do not love in the way stated in this chapter, pon- 
der well its meaning. Let the question go home to every heart 
here to-night, "Is there anyone I do not love?" If you are treasur- 
ing up in your heart any feeling of hatred toward Any man or woman, 
God will not love you. You must be ready to forgive and love. I 
do not know that we could put up anything better on the platform 
than that motto that " God is Love;" and may it be burned into your 
heart. You say you love them who love you. Any black-hearted 
hypocrite can love those who love him. But what Christ wants to 
teach us is, to love them that hate us and slight us. If you can only 
convince men that you love them, you can influence them. That is 
what we want to do, in order to touch the hearts of those we come in 
contact with the coming month. If one of us went to a bad man and 
said to him, " You are the worst man in Chicago," that would not 
touch him ; it would only harden his heart the more. We want to 
go to him lovingly, and show him the love that Christ offers him. 
When the Son of man came into the world, it was love that moved 
him ; and we will never do any good with anybody till our own 
hearts are touched with that same love. If we are not loving toward 
others, they will not like us; and instead of trying to talk for Christ, 
we had better keep away. A worker must win the hearts and affec- 
tions of the people before he can do any effective work. 

When in London Dr. Arnott came down from Edinburgh to one 
of our meetings, and he told those people something — I don't think 
the Londoners understood him; but if they knew of farm life as I did, 
they would have known what he meant. He said: "When I was 
on my father's farm, when they wanted to teach a calf to drink, they 
would bring it to the pail and a man would dip his fingers into the 
milk and put it into the calf s mouth, drawing his hand slowly away, 



382 



CHARITY. 



and before you knew it the calf was drinking itself. And so," he 
said, " if you want to win people to Christ, you have to go lovingly 
to them and lead them gradually to him." If you do not make 
people love you, you need not talk to them. Oh, that God may show 
you this truth to-night, that the great lever of the Christian is love! 
If a Sabbath-school teacher does not love his scholars — if he goes to 
them as if it was a lesson he wished to get over, it will not be long 
before they find it out. They will see it in his eyes, in his face, in 
his actions. And so, let us see to-night the necessity of having the 
love of God in our hearts; and so, when we approach that drunkard 
or that gambler, we can win him to Christ; and so that, when you 
show him the gospel and tell him you want him to be saved, he will 
receive you with a welcome. If you goto him from a sense of duty, 
you will make no progress with him, but if you go to him and talk 
of the love of Christ, and show kindness in your actions, he will hear 
you. 

A minister in London said to me one night: "Mr. Moody, I want 
you to pray for a lot of people who will be at the meeting to-night;" 
and when I went there, I saw in one corner a father, mother, and 
four or five children. And I prayed for them. When I got home I 
asked the minister about that family, and he said they had been won 
to Jesus by a smile. He said he was passing by a house in that city 
one day, at the window of which a little child was standing. He 
liked children, and he smiled to it and bowed. This minister was in 
the habit of passing the house every day; and the second time he 
noticed the child again, and he smiled again. The next time there 
were several children there, and he smiled and bowed again. When 
he came again he saw the same children standing there, but he saw 
a lady standing with them. He thought it would not be right to bow 
to the lady, but he smiled at the children; and the lady said, when 
she saw him looking so pleasant, " That man must be a minister." 
My friends, it would be a good thing if all ministers had a smile on 
their faces. There are more men driven away from churches by 
sour looks than by anything else. A minister ought to have a clear 
conscience, and he would wear a pleasant smile. Some of you will 
say: " Well, Christ was melancholy, and wept over sinners." Ah, 
but it was love. There is such a thing as a man weeping in his love. 
Well, the lady said to her little ones: "I want you to follow that 
gentleman, for I am sure he is a minister." And when he came 
round again the children went after him, shadowing him through 
several streets, until by-and-by he turned into an Independent church. 
The children followed him right in and they brought home a good 
report. They said they never had heard such a preacher, although 
probably they did not understand a word he said. But you know a 
little pat on the head and a kindly look goes a long way with chil- 
dren. Well, the result was that the mother came and she brought 



CHARITY. 383 

the father. They became converted, and thus a whole family were 
brought to Christ by a smile. 

We want to believe that the love of Christ is the best thing we 
can have. If a man wants to buy a horse, he goes around till he finds 
the best horse for his money. You women, if you want to buy a 
dress, go from one store to another and search till you find the best 
dress. And it is the universal law the world over. So if we can 
show the sinners, by love, that the religion of Jesus Christ is the best 
thing to have, we can win the world to us. If we can only show that 
we are full of love, and not full of envy and malice and bitterness, 
every one can be won to Christ. If the spirit of love can come upon 
all of us, so that we can talk to every one kindly, it will not be long 
before salvation shall break over us through Christ. 

You go into a church that is all aglow with love, and into another 
where there is a lack, and mark the difference. In the latter, the 
people get as far away from the pulpit as possible; and mark the 
coldness, and see how quick they get out of the church. Their hearts 
are cold to one another, and they have no sympathy. But when 
their hearts are all aglow, they crowd round and are genial toward 
one another; and "God bless the sermon," however poor the min- 
ister who preaches. The reason that we have so many poor ministers 
is, because we have so few praying people. Look at Joshua, while 
he was fighting for the Lord Moses was up on the mountain praying. 
So we want every one to pray for their ministers while they are fight- 
ing for the Lord. When a man comes to me and grumbles and com- 
plains about his minister, I ask him, " Do you ever pray for your 
minister?" He runs away. It spikes his guns. They do not work 
with the minister: never think of praying for him. We want to see 
every man red-hot for the Savior, and he will wake up the church. 
If he has got his heart red-hot, sparks will kindle in the little circle, 
and the whole church will be ablaze. Every soul will be filled with 
the glory of Christ. There is not a man in all Chicago — I do not 
care what he is; he may be an Atheist, a Pantheist, a drunkard, or a 
gambler — I do not believe that a man's heart is so hard but that 
God can break it. 

Mr. Warner, superintendent of probably one of the largest Sun- 
day schools in the world, had a theory that he would never put a boy 
out of his school for bad conduct. He argued that, if a boy mis- 
behaved himself, it was through bad training at home; and that if he 
put him out of the school; no one would take care of him. Well, 
this theory was put to the test one day. A teacher came to him and 
said: " I have got a boy in my class that must be taken out; he breaks 
the rules continually, he swears and uses obscene language, and I 
cannot do anything with him." Mr. Warner did not care about put- 
ting the boy out, so he sent the teacher back to his class. But he 
came again, and said that unless the boy was taken from his class he 



384 CHARITY. 

must leave it. Well, he left, and a second teacher was appointed. 
The second teacher came with the same story, and met with the same 
reply from Mr. Warner. And he resigned. A third teacher was ap- 
pointed, and he came with the same story as the others. Mr. War- 
ner then thought he would be compelled to turn the boy out at last. 
One day a few teachers were standing about, and Mr. Warner said: 
"I will bring this boy up and read his name out in the school, and 
publicly excommunicate him." Well, a young lady came up and 
said to him: "I am not doing what I might for Christ; let me have 
the boy; I will try and save him." But Mr. Warner said: "If these 
young men cannot do it, you will not." But she begged to have 
him, and Mr. Warner consented. She was a wealthy young lady, 
and surrounded with all the luxuries of life. The boy went to her 
class, and for several Sundays he behaved himself — and broke no 
rule. But one Sunday he broke loose, and in reply to something she 
said, spat in her face. She took out her pocket-handkerchief and 
wiped her face, but said nothing. Well, she thought upon a plan, 
and she said to him, " John " — we will call him John — " John, come 
home with me." "No," says he, "I won't; I won't be seen on the 
streets with you." She was fearful of losing him altogether if he 
went out of the school that day, and she said to him, " Will you let 
me walk home with you?" "No, I won't," said he; "I won't be seen 
on the streets with you." Then she thought upon another plan. She 
thought of the "Old Curiosity Shop," and she said: "I won't be at home 
to-morrow or Tuesday; but if you will come round to the front door 
on Wednesday morning, there will be a little bundle for you." "I 
don't want it; you may keep your old bundle." She went home, but 
made the bundle up. She thought that curiosity might make him 
come. 

Wednesday morning arrived, and he got over his mad fit; and he 
thought he would just like to see what was in this bundle. The little 
fellow knocked at the door, which was opened, and he told his story. 
She said, "Yes; here is the bundle." The boy opened it, and found 
a vest and a coat and other clothing; and a little note written by the 
young lady, which read something like this: 

" Dear Johnnie : Ever since you have been in my class I have prayed for 
you every morning and evening, that you might be a good boy, and I want you 
to stop in my class. Do not leave me." 

The next morning, before she was up, the servant came to her and 
said there was a little boy below who wished to see her. She dressed 
hastily, and went down stairs, and found Johnnie on the sofa, weep- 
ing. She put her arms around his neck, and he said to her: " My 
dear teacher, I have not had any peace since I got this note from 
you. I want you to forgive me. Won't you pray for me to come 
to Jesus?" And she went down on her knees and prayed. And 
now Mr. Warner said, that boy was the best boy in Sunday school. 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 385 

» 

And so it was love that broke that boy's heart. May the Lord 
give us that love in abundance! May we be so full of love that 
every one may see that it only prompts us to bring them to heaven! 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

"And who is my neighbor?"— Luke 10; 29 

You will find my text in part of the 29fch verse of the 10th chap- 
ter of Luke: "And who is my neighbor?" We are told that as 
Christ stood with his disciples a man, a lawyer, stood up and tempted 
him, and said: " Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He 
asked what he could do to inherit eternal life, what he could do to 
buy salvation. And the Lord answered his question, " What is 
written in the law? How readest thou?" To which the lawyer an- 
swered: " Thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and 
thy neighbor as thyself." " Thou hast answered right." But, "Who 
is my neighbor?" And be drew a vivid picture, which has been told 
for the last eighteen hundred years; and I do not know anything 
that brings out more truthfully the wonderful power of the gospel 
than this story, which we have heard read to-night — the story of the 
man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and who fell among 
thieves. Jerusalem was called the city of peace. Jericho and the 
road leading to it were infested with thieves. Probably it had been 
taken possession of by the worst of Adam's sons. I do not know 
how far the man got from Jerusalem to Jericho; but the thieves had 
come out and fallen upon him, and had taken all his money, and 
stripped him of his clothes, and left him wounded — left him, I sup- 
pose, for dead. By and by, a priest came down the road from 
Jerusalem. We are told that he came by chance. Perhaps he was 
going down to dedicate some synagogue, or preach a sermon on 
some important subject, and had the manuscript in his pocket. As 
he was going along on the other side, he heard a groan; and he 
turned around and saw the poor fellow lying bleeding on the ground, 
and pitied him. He went up close, took a look at him, and said: 
" Why, that man's a Jew; he belongs to the seed of Abraham. If I 
remember aright, 1 saw him in the synagogue last Sunday. I pity 
him. But I have too much business, and I cannot attend to him." 
25 



386 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

I 

He felt a pity for him, and looked on him, and probably wondered 
why God allowed such men as those thieves to come into the world, 
and passed by. There are a good many men just like him. They 
stop to discuss and wonder why sin came into the world, and look 
upon a wounded man, but do not stop to pick up a poor sinner, for- 
getting the fact that sin is in the world already, and it has to be 
rooted out. But another man came along, a Levite, and he heard 
the groans: he turned and looked on him with pity, too. He felt 
compassion for him. He was one of those men that, if we had here, 
we should probably make him an elder or a deacon. He looked at 
him and said: " Poor fellow! he's all covered with blood, he has 
been badly hurt, he is nearly dead; and they have taken all his 
money, and stripped him naked. Ah, well, I pity him!" He would 
like to help him; but he, too, has pressing business, and passes by on 
the other side. But he has scarcely got out of sight, when another 
comes along, riding on a beast. He heard the groans of the wounded 
man, went over and took a good look at him. The traveler was a 
Samaritan. When he looked down, he saw the man was a Jew. 
Ah, how the Jews looked down upon the Samaritans. There was a 
great, high partition wall between the Jews and the Samaritans. 
The Jews would not allow them in the temple; they would not have 
any dealings with them; they would not associate with them. I 
can see him coining along that road, with his good, benevolent 
face; and as he passes, he hears a groan from this poor fel- 
low. He draws in his beast and pauses to listen. "And he 
came to where he was." This is the sweetest thing to my mind in 
the whole story. A good many people would like to help a poor 
man if he was on the platform, if it cost them no trouble. They 
want him to come to them. They are afraid to touch the wounded 
man; he is all blood, and they will get their hands soiled. And that 
was just the way with the priest and the Levite. This poor man, 
perhaps, had paid half of all his means to help the service of the 
Temple, and might have been a constant worshiper; but they only 
felt pity for him. This good Samaritan "came to where was;" and 
after he saw him, he had compassion on him. That word "compas- 
sion" — how sweet it sounds! The first thing he did on hearing him 
cry for water — the hot sun had been pouring down on his head — 
was to go and get it from a brook. Then he goes and gets a bag, 
that he had with him — what we might call a carpet-bag or a saddle- 
bag, in the West — and pours in oil on his wounds. Then he thinks, 
"The poor fellow is weak;" and he goes and gets a little wine. He 
has been lying so long in the burning sun that he is nearly dead now 
— he was left half dead — and the wine revives him. He looks him 
over, and he sees his wounds that want to be bound up; but he has 
nothing to do this with. I can see him now tearing the lining out of 
his coat, and with it binding up his wounds. Then he takes him up 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 387 

and lays him on his bosom till he revives; and, when the poor fellow 
gets strength enough, the good Samaritan puts him on his own beast. 
If the Jew had not been half dead, he would never have allowed him 
to put his hands on him. He would have treated him with scorn. 
But he is half dead, and he cannot prevent the good Samaritan treat- 
ing him kindly and putting him on his beast. 

Did you ever stop to think what a strong picture it would have 
been if the Samaritan had not been able himself to get the man on 
the beast — if he had to call any assistance? Perhaps a man would 
have come along, and he would have asked him to help him with the 
wounded man. "What are you?" he might have said. "lama 
Samaritan." "You are a Samaritan, are you? I cannot help you; 
I am a Jew." There is a good deal of that spirit now, just as strong 
as it was then. When we are trying to get a poor man on the right 
way, when we are tugging at him to get his face toward Zion, we 
ask some one to help us; and he says, "I am a Roman Catholic." 
" Well," you say. " I am a Protestant." So they give no assistance 
to one another. The same party spirit of old is present to-day. The 
Protestants will have nothing to do with the Catholics; the Jews will 
have nothing to do with the Gentiles. And there was a time — but, 
thank God, we are getting over it — when a Methodist would not 
touch a Baptist (a voice — " Amen"), or a Presbyterian a Congrega- 
tionalist; and if we saw a Methodist taking a man out of a ditch, a 
Baptist would say, "Well, what are you going to do with him?" 
" Take him to a Methodist church." " Well, I'll have nothing to do 
with him." A great deal of this has gone by; and the time is com- 
ing when, if we are trying to get a man out of the ditch, and they 
see us tugging at him, and we are so weak that we cannot get him 
on the beast, they will help him. And that is what Christ wants. 

Well, the Samaritan gets him on his beast, and says to him: "You 
are very weak; my beast is sure-footed, he will take you to the inn, 
and I will hold you." He held him firmly; and God is able to hold 
every one he takes out of the pit. I see them going along that road, 
he holds him on, and he gets him to the inn. He gets him there, 
and he says to the innkeeper: "Here is a wounded man; the thieves 
have been after him; give him the best attention you can; nothing 
is too good for him." And I can imagine the good Samaritan as 
stopping there all night, sitting up with him, and attending to his 
wants. And the next morning he gets up, and says to the landlord, 
"I must be off," leaving a little money to pay for what the man has 
had; " and if that is not enough, I will pay what is necessary when I 
return from my business in Jericho." This good Samaritan gave this 
landlord twopence to pay for what he had got, and promised to come 
again and repay whatever had been spent to take care of the man ; 
and he had given him, besides, all his sympathy and compassion. 
And Christ tells this story in answer to the lawyer who came to 



388 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

tempt him, and showed that the Samaritan was the neighbor. Now 
this story is brought out here to teach the church-goers this thing: 
that it is not creeds or doctrines that we want, so much as compas- 
sion and sympathy. I have been talking about the qualifications 
which we require in working for Christ. First night I took " Cour- 
age," then " Love," and last night " Faith;" and now it is "Compas- 
sion and Sympathy." 

If we have not compassion and sympathy, our efforts will go for 
naught. There are hundreds of Christians who work here who do 
very little because they have not sympathy. If they go to lift up a 
man, they must put themselves into his place. If you place your- 
self in sympathy with a man you are trying to do good to, you will 
soon lift him up. 

When at the Hippodrome in New York, a young man came up to 
me; he looked very sad, his face was troubled. I asked him what 
was the matter, and he said: "I am a fugitive from justice. When 
in England, when I was young, my father used to take me into the 
public-house with him, and I learned the habit of drinking; and liq- 
uor has become to me like water. A few months ago I was in En- 
gland, where I was head clerk in a large firm. I was doing well; I 
had $50 a week. Well, one night I was out, and I had some money 
of my employers with me, and I got to gambling and lost it. I ran 
away from England, and left a wife and two lovely children. Here 
I am; I cannot get anything to do; I have no letters of recommen- 
dation; and what shall I do?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ," 
said I. "I cannot become a Christian with that record behind me; 
there is no hope for me," he replied. "There is hope; seek Jesus, 
and leave everything behind," I told him. " Well," said he, " 1 can- 
not do that until I make restitution." But I keep him to that one 
thing. He wrote me a letter, and said that the sermon " You must 
be born again," had made a great impression on him. He could not 
sleep that night, and he finally passed from darkness into light. He 
came to me, and he said: "I am willing to go back to England and 
surrender myself, and go into prison, if Christ wants it." I said to 
him: "Don't do that; but write to your employers, and say that if 
Christ helps you you will make restitution. Live as economically as 
you can, and be industrious, and you will soon find all well." The 
man wrote to his employers, and I got a letter from him shortly af- 
terward, and he told me that his wife was coming out to New York. 
When I was last there I made inquiry about him, and found that he 
was doing well. He only wanted sympathy — some one to take him 
by the hand and help him. I believe that there are not less than 
10,000 young men in Chicago who are just waiting for some one to 
come to them with sympathy. You do not know how far a loving 
word will go. When 1 came to this city twenty years ago, I re- 
member I walked up and down the streets trying to find a situation; 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 389 

and I recollect how, when they roughly answered me, their treatment 
would chill my soul. But when some one would say: "I feel for 
you; I would like to help you, but I can't; but you will be all right 
soon," I went away happy and light-hearted. That man's sympathy 
did me good. 

When I first went away from home, and to a place some thirteen 
miles away, it seemed as if I could never be any further away. My 
brother had gone to live at that town a year and a half before. I 
recollect as I walked down the street with him, I was very home- 
sick, and could hardly keep down the tears. My brother said to me : 
"There's a man here will give you a cent; he gives a cent to every 
new boy that comes here." I thought that he would be the best 
man I had ever met. By and by he came along, and I thought he 
was going to pass me. My brother stopped him, thinking, I suppose, 
I was going to lose the cent, and the old gentleman — he was an old 
gentleman — looked at me and said: "Why, I have never seen you 
before: you must be a new boy." "Yes," said my brother; "he has 
just come." The old man put his trembling hand upon my head, 
and patted it and told me that I had a Father in heaven, although 
my earthly father was dead, and he gave me a new cent. I don't 
know where that cent went to; but the kindly touch of that old 
man's hand upon my head has been felt by me all these years. What 
we want is sympathy from men. There are hundreds of men with 
hearts full of love, who, if they received but words of sympathy, their 
hearts would be won to a higher life. But I can imagine men say- 
ing: " How are you going to reach them? How are you going to do 
it? How are you going to get into sympathy with these people?" It 
is very easy done. Pat yourself into their places. There is a young 
man, a great drunkard; perhaps his father was a drunkard. If you 
had been surrounded with influences like this, perhaps you would 
have been a worse drunkard than he is. Well, just put yourself into 
his place, and go and speak to him lovingly and kindly. 

I want to tell you a lesson taught me in Chicago, a few years ago. 
In the months of July and August a great many deaths occur among 
children, you all know. I remember I attended a great many funer- 
als; sometimes I would go to two or three funerals a day. I got so 
used to it that it did not trouble me to see a mother take the last 
kiss and the last look at her child, and see the coffin-lid closed. I 
got accustomed to it, as in the war we got accustomed to the great 
battles, and to see the wounded and the dead never troubled us. 
When I got home one night, I heard that one of my Sunday-school 
pupils was dead; and her mother wanted me to come to the house. 
I went to the poor home, and saw the father drunk. Adelaide had 
been brought from the river. The mother told me she washed for a 
living; the father earned no money, and poor Adelaide's work was to 
get wood for the fire. She had gone to the river that day and seen a 



390 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

piece floating on the water, had stretched out for it, had lost her bal- 
ance and fallen in. The poor woman was very much distressed. " I 
would like you to help me, Mr. Moody," she said, to bury my child. 
I have no lot, I have no money." Well, I took the measure for the 
coffin and came away. I had my little girl with me, and she said : 
"Papa, suppose we were very, very poor, and mamma had to work 
for a living; and I had to get sticks for the fire, and was to fall into 
the river, would you be very sorry?" This question reached my 
heart. " Why, my child, it would break my heart to lose you," I 
said, and I drew her to my bosom. "Papa, do you feel bad for that 
mother ?" she said, and this word woke my sympathy for the woman; 
and I started and went back to the house, and prayed that the Lord 
might bind up that wounded heart. When the day came for the fu- 
neral, I went to Graceland. I had always thought my time too pre- 
cious to go out there; but I went. The drunken father was there, 
and the poor mother. I bought a lot, the grave was dug, and the 
child laid among strangers. There was another funeral coming up, 
and the corpse was laid near the grave of little Adelaide. And I 
thought how I would feel if it had been my little girl that I had been 
laying there among strangers. I went to my Sabbath-school think- 
ing this, and suggested that the children should contribute and buy 
a lot in which we might bury a hundred poor little children. We 
soon got it, and the papers had scarcely been made out when a lady 
came and said: "Mr. Moody, my little girl died this morning, let 
me bury her in the lot you have got for the, Sunday-school children." 
The request was granted, and she asked me to go to the lot and say 
prayers over her child. I went to the grave — it was a beautiful day 
in June, and I remember asking her what the name of her child was. 
She said Emma. That was the name of my little girl; and I thought, 
What if it had been my own child. We should put ourselves in the 
places of others. I could not help shedding a tear. Another woman 
came shortly after and wanted to put another one into the grave. I 
asked his name. It was Willie, and it happened to be the name of 
my little boy — the first two laid there were called by the same names 
as my two children, and I felt sympathy and compassion for those two 
women. 

If you want to get into sympathy, put yourself into a man's place. 
Chicago needs Christians whose hearts are full of compassion and 
sympathy. If we haven't got it, pray that we may have it, so that 
we may be able to reach those men and women that need kindly 
words and kindly actions far more than sermons. The mistake is that 
we have been preaching too much and sympathizing too little. The 
gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of deeds and not of words. May 
the Spirit of the Lord come upon us this night. May we remember 
that Christ was moved in compassion for us, and may we, if we find 
some poor man going down among thieves, or lying wounded and 



391 

bleeding, look upon him with sympathy, and get below him and 
raise him up. 



"HIS OWN BROTHER." 

" He first findeth his own brother, and brought him to Jesus." John 1 •■ 41. 

I want to call your attention this morning to a text you will find 
in the 1st chapter according to John, part of the 41st verse: "He 
first findeth his own brother, and brought him to Jesus." 

I thought this morning I would just like to take a leaf out of my 
own life in the past, that it may help some of those present in this 
hall who have brothers that are very dear to them, but who are out 
of Christ. Twenty-one years ago last March, when God converted 
me, the very first thing that came into my mind was my six brothers. 
Then and there, I began to pray for them. I had never prayed for 
them before; and I began to cry to God that these six brothers and 
two sisters might be led home to peace. And for twenty-one years 
that has been my prayer; that has been my cry to God. I remem- 
ber the first time I went home after my conversion. I thought I 
could tell them what God had done for me. I thought I had only to 
explain it, to have them all see the light. How disappointed I was 
when I left home that first time, after remaining for a few days, to 
find they did not see it. I was not very experienced in pleading 
for souls then. Perhaps I did not go at it in the right way. But I 
kept on, as best I could. And a few years after, when I was in this 
city — three years after, I was in a store on Lake street, a postman 
came one day and brought a letter that told me my youngest brother 
was given up by the physician to die. That day he was dying; I 
went into the fifth story of that building, and if ever I prayed ear- 
nestly in my life I did then, that my brother might be spared. He 
was the Benjamin of the family. He was born after my father died. 
I thought I could give him up then, if he only was a Christian. But 
I had not any hope. The thought that my brother, who was very 
dear to me, dearer to me than my life, it seemed, should die thus in 
his sins, was too much for me to stand; and I wrestled with God in 
prayer. It seemed God answered my prayer. The next letter said 
he was better. He had a run of typhoid fever that lasted forty-two 
days. And when he got off that bed, I felt, in answer to prayer, 



392 "his own brother." 

the boy was much dearer to me than ever before. But he never was 
well during sixteen or eighteen years. I remember fourteen years 
ago he came to me, to this city. I have that dear boy in my heart 
now. I thought then my oppprtunity had surely come, and I could 
lead him to Christ. But he was taken sick again; I could not keep 
him here. The doctor said he might live a number of years, but 
could not be cured. Naturally very ambitious and proud-spirited, 
he did not want to go back home. But the doctor said it was the 
best I could do, and I took him back to Massachusetts. I took him 
home from Chicago to Northfield, all the way preaching Christ to 
him. But he took no interest in my speech. Everything I said 
failed to influence him, although he seemed to love me very much. 
And for fourteen years I kept that dear boy on my heart; I just 
kept on praying for him. Year after year, I went back to the old 
home just to spend a few days with him, that I might win him to 
Christ. He knew I wanted him to be a Christian; but it seemed he 
would not comply. He took no interest in the Bible, no interest in 
Christianity. He would talk politics, he would talk everything else ; 
but you could not get him to talk of Christ or Christianity. I went 
back home a year ago, with a heart just burdened for the salvation 
of my family. My heart burned to draw them to Christ. I went to 
preaching in that town. In the«last month, my heart going out to 
that dear boy, I asked all those present in the church willing to be- 
come Christians to rise; and he, my long-sought brother, rose for 
prayers. What a precious relief for my heart! He became an ear- 
nest Christian. He turned his face toward heaven that very night. 
He became an active Christian. And when they soon after decided 
to have a Young Men's Christian Association for that town, the 
young men wanted a president; and they elected him for president. 
Oh, that was a blessed day for me, when my brother, converted to 
God, after twenty years' prayer, took charge of that little band! I 
heard him make his first speech, and that seemed the happiest day 
of my life. He was a young man of great talents; he was the star 
of the family, the most promising one of the family. No one of us 
could have done as much for Christ, had he gone to him in his earli- 
est manhood. And he went to work. He took a leading part in 
religious meetings. He went and talked with weak brothers, and 
set them on their feet again. He searched for souls on both sides of 
the Connecticut River, in both sides of the valley. More conver- 
sions took place after I left than when I was there. Every Sunday 
afternoon he would go out into the country and take charge of meet- 
ings; and as I used to stand in the pulpit sometimes, and look down 
on that young brother in his zealous work, no one but God knows 
how I loved him and rejoiced with great joy. And when God took 
him, he was in the midst of his work, bringing others to Christ. Oh, 
I want to tell you my thoughts after I left you suddenly! The first 



"his own brother." 303 

thought as I went toward my home — Oh, how deep the sorrow! 
The dear boy was gone forever; and in the first moments grief will 
have its way. The text in scripture, the expression that David used 
when he lost Jonathan, kept coming into my mind: " I am very 
much distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast 
thou been unto me; thy soul to me was wonderful." Yes, thy soul 
to me was wonderful. For these twenty years, I always knew he 
was going to meet me at the depot. I always found him waiting for 
me there; I never missed him. Sometimes, I was there three or 
four trains behind; but he was always watching and waiting for me. 
And that sadly beautiful hymn also kept coming into my mind: 
" We shall meet but we shall miss him; there will be one vacant 
chair." But over and above all these, the voice from heaven at last 
made itself heard to my heart, "Thy brother shall rise again." The 
cloud was lifted; and for about five hundred miles on my way to my 
home that verse rung in my ears. It seemed to echo and re-echo 
throughout all the journey, "Thy brother shall rise again." Oh, the 
precious Bible! "It never seemed to me so precious as it did that 
day. My call to mourning was the deepest I have ever known; for 
next perhaps to my wife, my two children, and my aged mother, I 
loved none so dearly as this youngest brother. But that precious 
promise gives the heart cause to rejoice, even in the sorrow of death. 
And again, in the fifteenth chapter of Corinthians what divine sus- 
taining words I took to my soul. 

14 But some men will say, how are the dead raised up ? and with what body- 
do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it 
die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but 
bare grain; it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth 
it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. So also is the 
resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption ; it is raised in incorruption. 
It is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness ; it is 
raised in power." 

Dishonor! Oh, as we laid him down in the cold grave, I thought 
as we laid him away of the worms that would come to his body, and 
of the dishonor. But with what power the Word of God came to my 
soul then in these words, " It is raised in glory." We sowed it in 
weakness; but it shall be raised in power. It seemed there was vic- 
tory even in that trying hour. It was sown in corruption; but it 
shall be raised incorruptible. It was sown mortal; but it shall be 
raised immortal. It was sown a natural body; it shall be raised a 
spiritual body. And, as it had borne the image of the earthly, it 
shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I shall see that brother, 
by and by; then shall he be glorified. Yes, my friends, I could even 
rejoice as I read these blessed assurances of Scripture. The Word 
of God came to my soul as never before. Blessed Bible! how dark 
it would have been but for that blessed book. But by its beams all 
darkness was driven away. It seemed I could even thank God for 



394 " HIS OWN BROTHER." 

the triumphant death of my dear brother, and almost envied him. 
No, I would not have God call him back from heaven into this dark 
world. Yon happy home beyond the grave is far better. What joy 
to tell of good deeds done. A minister down home told me that he 
did not know, a short time back, of a solitary young man in his 
neighborhood who would offer prayer; but now a numerous and 
zealous band of praying Christians were the fruits of my brother's 
life. And that text came forcibly to my mind: "Blessed are the 
dead that die in the Lord; even so saith the Spirit, and their works 
do follow them." There were these dear young Christian converts 
following him to his grave; his works did follow him. In the grave- 
yard of the church that funeral day, I saw fifty of these young men, 
converted mostly in the past year. I shouted even there by the grave 
— I could not help it: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, 
where is thy victory?" And I seemed to hear a voice, as from the 
bosom of the Son of God: "Because I live, ye shall live also." 

And on my way back from Northfield to Chicago, this has been 
my thought: If you, my dear Christian friend, have a brother out of 
Christ, go bring him in. You will, by and by, have to stand by the 
open grave of some dear brother; and to be without Christ, how can 
you bear it? And so, my friends, let me urge upon you, first of all, 
to go and find your own brother. If you have a brother out of Christ, 
go to him to-day; tell him how you love him, how you want him to 
be a Christian, how you are burdened and weighed down for his sal- 
vation. And then go to your sister, to your cousin, to your friend. 
Oh, do you each one of you write to some absent friend to-day, be- 
seeching that Christ may be accepted just now ! I thank God, from 
the bottom of my heart that my dear brother took a stand for Christ, 
and went to work. I thank God that now his works do follow him. 
The young Christian men met immediately after he died; a hundred 
of them came together to choose some one to take his place. And 
how it rejoiced my heart that George Moody took the place of Sam- 
uel, and has set himself earnestly to the work. He said, " From now 
I will try to follow more faithfully after Christ." And when we met 
Wednesday night — it was Tuesday we laid him away — another 
brother was harnessed to the work in place of the dear buried one. 
Oh, dear friends, if souls weigh on our hearts, let us go and bring 
them to Jesus. Let us write to them beseeching letters, if our lips 
cannot reach them. Let us not rest day or night. Let us this morn- 
ing go out and bring our friends to Christ. Let us commence with 
our own families; let us find our brothers. If our brothers have 
yielded, let us go to our friends. If they are strangers to Christ, oh, 
go bring them now while you may. Exhort by word of mouth; exhort 
by fervent and repeated letters. Begin at once your mission, lest it 
be too late forever, and praise God for the dear privilege of bringing 
others to him. 



WHERE ART THOU? 

"Where art thou?" Genesis 3: 9. 

I want to direct your attention to the 3d chapter of Genesis, part 
of the 9th verse: " Where art thou?" You see I have got a very- 
personal text this afternoon. All those ministers in this audience 
will bear me out in this statement, that it is the hardest kind of work 
to get their congregations to apply this text to themselves. When 
they hear it, one man passes it on to another; and away it goes, 
text and sermon. This afternoon I want you to understand that it 
means me, you, and every one of us — that it points to us; that it 
applies to us personally — that it ought to come home to every soul 
here — to these merchants, to these ministers, to these reporters, to 
these great-hearted men, to these women, to these little boys and 
girls, as a personal question. It was the first question God put to 
man after his fall; and in the 6,000 years that have rolled away, all 
of Adam's children have heard it. It has come to them all. In the 
silent watches of the night, in the busy hours of the day, it has come 
upon us many a time — -the question "Where am I? Whither am I 
going?" And I want you to look at it now as a personal question. 
So let us be solemn for a few minutes, while we try to answer it. 
Some men look with great anxiety as to how they appear in the 
sight of their fellowmen. It is of very little account what the world 
thinks of us. The world is not worth heeding; public opinion is of 
very little account. We should not pay any attention to its opinion. 
"Where art thou going?" is the question that ought to trouble. 
"What is to be your hereafter?" May the question strike home to 
us, and may a heart-searching take place in us, and the Holy Spirit 
search us, so that we may know before we sleep to-night where we 
are now in the sight of God, and where we are going in eternity. 

I remember when preaching in New York City, at the Hippo- 
drome, a man coming up to me and telling me a story that thrilled 
my soul. One night, he said, he had been gambling; had gambled 
all the money away he had. When he went home to the hotel that 
night, he did not sleep much — half drunk, and with a sort of remorse 
for what he had done. The next morning happened to be Sunday. 
He got up, felt bad, couldn't eat anything, didn't touch his breakfast, 
was miserable, and thought about putting an end to his existence. 
That afternoon he took a walk up Broadway; and when he came to 
the Hippodrome, he saw great crowds going in and thought of enter- 
ing too. But a policeman at the door told him he couldn't come in, 
395 



396 WHERE ART THOU ? 

as it was a women's meeting. He turned from it and strolled on; 
came back to his hotel and had dinner. At night he walked up the 
street until he reached the Hippodrome again; and this time he saw 
a lot of men going in. When inside he listened to the singing and 
heard the text, " Where art thou?" and he thought he would go out. 
He rose to go out and the text came upon his ears again, "Where 
art thou?" This was too personal, he thought; it was disagreeable, 
and he made for the door; but as he got to the third row from the 
entrance, the words came to him again, "Where art thou?" He 
stood still; for the question had come to him with irresistible force, 
and God had found him right there. He went to his hotel and 
prayed all that night; and now he is a bright and shining light. 
And this young man, who is a commercial traveler, went back to 
the village in which he had been reared, and in which he had been 
one of the fastest young men — went back there, and went around 
among his friends and acquaintances and testified for Christ, as 
earnestly and beneficially for him as his conduct had been against 
him. I hope the text will find out some young man here who has 
strayed away from God, and come upon him with such force person- 
ally as will turn him from his present course to take the oifers of sal- 
vation. Won't you believe we are here for you; won't you believe 
we are preaching for you; won't you believe that this enterprise has 
been carried out for you, and that this assembly has been drawn to- 
gether for you; and may you ask your heart, solemnly and candidly 
this question, "Where art thou?" 

I am going to divide this audience into three classes. Don't let 
this startle you; I am not going to make three divisions among you. 
The first class is the class who professes to be Christians. I don't 
know who you are, or whether you are sincere. It rests between 
you and God. The other class are the backsliders — those who have 
been good children, but who have turned their backs upon him, and 
have gone into the regions of sin. And the other class is that one 
that has never been saved, who have never been born of the Spirit, 
who have never sought to reach Christ. 

And now, my friends, as to you who profess to be Christians. We 
who profess to be Christians, are we living up to what we preach? 
God forgive me! I feel I am not doing as much as I should for him. 
I don't except myself. You who profess to be Christians, this ques- 
tion is personal to you, "Where art thou ?" Do you believe what 
you are preaching; do you live the life you ought to be living as pro- 
fessed Christians? If you were doing this, tens of thousands of peo- 
ple would be converted in Chicago within thirty days. By your 
neglect to practice what you preach, men have got sick of you; the 
world has become tired of you. They say if we really feel what we 
talk about and profess, we would be more earnest about their salva- 
tion. And I say, they are right. If Christians felt as they should, 



WHERE ART THOU ? 397 

every church in Chicago, every church in the Northwest, would be 
on fire for the salvation of souls. They are lukewarm. Is the Church 
to-day in its right position; is it true to its teachings? Are we not 
mingling with the world in our professed Christian lives, so that the 
world has become tired of our shamming professions? If the world 
does not see us act according to our professions, they say Christian- 
ity is not real. Why, a young man some time ago, a professed Chris- 
tian, spoke to another young man upon the subject, and the 
Christian was answered with the words: "I don't believe a word of 
your Christianity; I don't believe a word of what you talk about; I 
don't believe your Bible." " You don't mean that?" asked the Chris- 
tian. "Yes I do," said the young man; "It's all a sham; you are 
all hypocrites." The Christian said to him, knowing he had a mother 
who was a professed Christian: "You don't mean to say that your 
mother is a hypocrite?" "Well, no," said the young fellow, not 
willing to admit his mother was one; "she is not exactly a hypocrite; 
but she don't believe what she professes. If she did, she would have 
talked to me about my soul long ago." That young man, my friends, 
had the best of it. And this is the condition of nine-tenths of us — 
we don't practice what we profess to believe. We have not really 
taken the cross of Christ; we have not put off the old man and taken 
on the new; we are not living truly in Christ Jesus; and the world is 
sick of us, and goes stumbling over us. If we don't practice in every 
particular the professions we make, and try to influence the lives of 
others, and lead the lives of Christians according to Christian precept, 
the world will go on stumbling over us. A few years ago, in a town 
somewhere in this State, a merchant died; and while he was lying a 
corpse, I was told a story I will never forget. When the physician 
that attended him saw there was no chance for him here, he thought 
it would be time to talk about Christ to the dying man. And there 
are a great many Christians just like this physician. They wait till 
a man is just entering the other world, just till he is about nearing 
the throne, till the sands of life is about run out, till the death-rattle 
is in his throat, before they commence to speak of Christ. The phy- 
sician stepped up to. the dying merchant and began to speak of Jesus, 
the beauties of Christianity, and the salvation he had offered to all 
the world. The merchant listened quietly to him, and then asked 
him, "How long have you known of these things?" " I have been a 
Christian since I came from the East," he replied. "You have been 
a Christian so long- and have known all this, and have been in my 
store every day. You have been in my home, and have associated 
with me; you knew all these things, and why didn't you tell me 
before?" The doctor went home and retired to rest, but could not 
sleep. The question of the dying man rang in his ears.- He could 
not explain why he had not spoken before; but he saw he had neg- 
lected his duty to his principles. He went back to his dying friend, 



398 WHERE ART THOU ? 

intending to urge upon him acceptance of Christ's salvation; but 
when he began to speak to him, the merchant only replied in a sad 
whisper, " Oh, why didn't you tell me before?" Oh, my friends, how 
many of us act like this physician. You must go to your neigh- 
bor, and tell him who does not know Christ of what He has done for 
us. If you do not tell the glad tidings, they are listening to the 
promptings of the devil; and we make people believe that Christian- 
ity is hypocrisy, and that Christ is not the Savior of the world. If 
we believe it, shall we not publish it, and speak out the glorious 
truth to all for Christ — that He is the Redeemer of the world. Some 
time ago, I read a little account that went through the press; and it 
burned into my soul. A father took his little child into the fields 
one day. He lay down while the child was amusing itself, picking 
up little blades of grass and flowers. While the child was thus en- 
gaged, the father fell asleep; and when he awoke the first thought 
that occurred to him was, " Where is my child?" He looked around 
everywhere, but nowhere could he see the child. He looked all 
around the fields, over the mountains, but could not see her, and 
finally came to a precipice and looked down among the stones and 
rocks; and there he saw his little child lying down at the bottom, 
and ran down, took the child up, and kissed it tenderly. But it was 
dead. He was filled with remorse, and accused himself of being the 
murderer of his child. And this story applies to Christians, in their 
watchful care of their fellow-creatures. 

It was not long ago that I heard of a mother making all sorts of 
fun and jeering at our preaching; not in Chicago, but in another 
town. She was laughing and scoffing at the meetings, she was scorn- 
ing the preachers; and yet she had a drunken son. It might have 
been, if she had helped to support the meetings, the meetings would 
have been the means of saving that son from a drunkard's grave; 
and mothers and fathers here to-day, you have the responsibility 
upon you of turning the faces of your children toward Zion. Ah, 
my friends, it is a solemn question to you to-day; and may you ask 
yourself where you are in the sight of God. 

The next class I want to speak to, for a few moments; for I cannot 
help believing that in this assembly there must be a number of back- 
sliders, who have gone away from the wayside. You have probably 
come from an Eastern town to this one, and you have come to some 
church with a letter — to some Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Episco- 
palian church. And when you came to that church, you did not find 
the love you expected; you didn't find the cordiality you looked for, 
and you did not go near it again. So you kept the letter in your 
pocket for weeks, for years; it might have been thrown in your trunk, 
might have been burned up in the Chicago fire; and you have forgot 
all about your church life, and the letter has disappeared. You lead 
an ungodly life; but you are not happy. I have traveled about a 



WHERE ART THOU ? 399 

good deal in the last five years, and I never knew a man who had 
turned away from religion to be a happy man. That man's con- 
science is always troubling him. He may come to Chicago and 
become prosperous and wealthy, but his wealth and position in the 
world cannot fill his heart. If there is a poor- backslider in this build- 
ing to-day, let him come back. Hear the voice that calls you to 
come back. There is nothing you have done which God is not ready 
and able to forgive. If there is a poor wanderer on the mountains 
of sin, turn right round and face him. He will hear your transgres- 
sions, and forgive your backsliding, and take you to his loving 
bosom ; and this will be a happy night to you. Look at the home of 
the backslider. No prayers, no family altar there. As in the days 
of Elijah, they have put up the image of Baal in the place of their 
God. They have no peace; their conscience troubles them, they 
know they are not bringing their family up as they should. Is not 
that the condition of a good many here to-day? Oh, backslider, 
you know what your life is; but what will be your eternity if you 
fight against the Lord, who is only waiting to do you good? 

I heard of a young man who came to Chicago to sell his father's 
grain. His father was a minister somewhere down here. The boy 
arrived in Chicago and sold the grain; and when the time came for 
him to return home, the boy did not come. The father and mother 
were up all night expecting to hear the sound of the wagon every 
minute; but they waited and waited, and still he did not come. The 
father became so uneasy that he went into the stable and saddled 
his horse, and came to Chicago. When he reached here he found 
that his son had sold the grain, but had not been seen since the sale; 
and he concluded that he was murdered. After making investiga- 
tion, however, he found that the boy had gone into a gambling house 
and lost all his money. After they had taken all his money from 
him, they told him to sell his horse and wagon, and he would recover 
his money, which he did. He was like the poor man who came down 
from Jericho to Jerusalem, and who fell among thieves, and after 
they had stripped him of everything cast him off. And a great many 
of you think as this young man thought. You think that rum-sellers 
and gamblers are your best friends, when they will take from you 
your peace, your health, your soul, your money — everything you 
have, and then run away. Well, the father, after looking about for 
him fruitlessly, went home and told his wife what he had learned. 
But he did not settle down, but just took his carpet bag in his hand 
and went from one place to another, getting ministers to let him 
preach for them; and he always told the congregation that he had a 
boy dearer to him than life, and left his address with them, and urged 
them, if ever they heard anything about his boy, to let him know. 
At last, after going around a good deal, he got on his track, and 
learned that he had gone to California. He went home, but did not 



400 WHERE ART THOU ? 

write a letter to him. No; he just arranged his business affairs and 
started for the Pacific coast, to find his boy. This is but an illustra- 
tion of what God has been doing for you. There has not been a day, 
an hour, a moment, but God has been searching for you. When the 
father got to San Francisco, he got permission to preach; and he had 
a notice put in the papers, in the hope that it might reach the min- 
ing districts, trusting that if his son were there it might reach him. 
He preached a sermon on the Sunday, and when he pronounced the 
benediction, the audience went away. But he saw in a corner one 
who remained. He went up to him, and found that it was his boy. 
He did not reprimand him, he did not deliver judgment upon him, 
but put his loving arms around him, drew him to his bosom, and took 
him back to his home. This is an illustration of what God wants to 
do to us, what he wants to do to-day. He offers us his love, and his 
forgiveness. 

There is one peculiarity about a backslider, you must get back to 
him as you went away. It is you who have gone away by turning, 
by leaving him, not he by leaving you. And the way to get back to 
him is, to turn your face toward him; and he will receive you with 
joy and forgiveness. There will be joy in your heart, and there will 
be joy in heaven this afternoon, if you return to him. If you treated 
God as a personal friend, there would not be a backslider. A rule I 
have had for years is, to treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal 
friend. His is not a creed, a mere empty doctrine; but it is he him- 
self we have. The moment we have received Christ, we should re- 
ceive him as a friend. When I go away from home, I bid my wife 
and children good-by, I bid my friends and acquaintances good-by; 
but I never heard of a poor backslider going down on his knees and 
saying: "I have been near you for ten years; your service has be- 
come tedious and monotonous; I have come to bid you farewell; 
good-by, Lord Jesus Christ." I never heard of one doing this. I 
will tell you how they go away — they just run away. Where are 
you, you backslider? Just look upon your condition during the past 
ten years. Have they been years of happiness? Have they been 
years of peace? Echo answers ten thousand times, " No," Return 
to him at once; never mind what your past has been, he will give 
you salvation. 

But I must hasten on to the next class — the unsaved. I will ad- 
mit that professed Christians have got their failings; we are far from 
being what we ought to be. But is that any reason why you should 
not come to him? We do not preach ourselves — we do not set our- 
selves up as the Savior; if we did, you might make this an excuse. 
But we preach Christ. Now, you who are unsaved, won't you come? 
I do not know who you are in this audience; but if the Spirit of 
God is not born in you, and does not tell you you are the children of 
God, this is an evidence that vou have not been born of God. Do 



WHERE ART THOU ? 401 

you love your enemies? Do you love those who slander you? Do 
you love those who hate you? Have you joy, peace, long-suffering, 
courage, charity? If yoa have got the fruit of the Spirit, you have 
those qualities; if you have not, you have not been born of the Spirit. 
Now, friends, just ask yourselves this question. "Where am I?" 
Here in this hall to-day, surrounded with praying friends. It seemed, 
sometimes, to me, as if the words came to me and fell to the floor: 
and at other times, the words fell on the heart. We can feel it in 
this hall to-day, in the atmosphere; we feel its influence all around. 
It may be that that mother is praying for the return of an erring 
son; it may be that that brother has been praying all the afternoon, 
"O my God, may the Spirit come to my brother!" Dear friends, 
let us ask each other to-day, "Where art thou?" Resisting earnest, 
trembling prayers of some loving mother, of some loving wife — 
trampling them under foot! Now, be honest. Have I not been 
talking to many in this audience who made promises five, ten, 
fifteen, twenty years ago — who made a promise to serve him ? Those 
promises have faded away; and those five, ten, fifteen, twenty years 
have rolled on, and you are no nearer. O sinner, where art thou? 
Are you making light of all offers of mercy? Are you turning your 
back and ridiculing him and laughing at him? If you are, may he, 
the God of mercy, arrest you, and have mercy on your soul and save 
you. The last three years have been the most solemn years of my 
life. A man's life is just like going up ai\d down a hill. If I live 
the allotted time, I am going down the hill. Many of you are on 
the top of the hill, and are not saved. Suppose you pause a mo- 
ment, and look down the hill on the road from whence you came — 
look back toward the cradle. Don't you remember that the sermons 
you heard ten or fifteen years ago moved you? You say: " When 
you look back at those times, we used to have good sermons, better 
and more earnest ministers than now." Don't you make any mis- 
take. The gospel is the same as it was then, as powerful to-day as 
ever. The fault is not with the ministers of the gospel; it is with 
yourself — your heart has become hard. Then, as you look down 
into the valley, don't you see a little mound and a tombstone? It 
marks the resting-place of a loving father, or a loving mother. Ten 
years ago, you had a praying mother. Every morning and evening, 
she went down on her knees in her closet and prayed for you. Her 
prayers are ended now — and yet you are not saved. It may be, as 
you look down the stream of time, you see a little grave that marks 
the resting-place of your child. It may be that child took you by 
the hand, and asked you, " Will you meet me in that land?" And 
you promised her that you would meet her there. As you looked 
down into that little grave, and heard the damp, cold earth falling 
down, you repeated that promise. Five, ten, fifteen years ago you 
promised this; have you kept it? Some of you are far down the 
20 



4:02 WHERE ART THOU ? 

hill, and hastening to judgment. May God open your eyes to-day, 
as you look back upon your lives, and look into the future. It may 
be that you will live the allotted time; but the end is soon to come. 
The average age is thirty-three years. There are a number of you 
in this hall this afternoon who will be in eternity inside of thirty 
days. Ask yourselves where you are — resisting the offer of mercy, 
turning back the offer of God. May the loving God show you the 
Savior standing at the door of your heart, and knocking, and telling- 
you he wants to come in and save you. 

In London, when I was there in 1867, I was told a story which 
made a very deep impression upon me. A young French nobleman 
came there to see a doctor, bringing letters from the French Emperor. 
The Emperor Napoleon III. had a great regard for this young man, and 
the doctor wanted to save him. He examined the young man, and 
saw there was something upon his mind. "Have you lost any prop- 
erty? What is troubling you? You have something weighing upon 
your mind," said the doctor. "Oh, there is nothing particular." "I 
know better; have you lost any relations?" asked the doctor. "No, 
none within the last three years." "Have you lost any reputation 
in your country?" "No." The doctor studied for a few minutes, 
and then said: "I must know what is on your mind; I must know 
what is troubling you." And the young man said: "My father was 
an infidel; my grandfather was an infidel, and I was brought up an 
infidel; and for the last three years these words have haunted me, 
4 Eternity! and where shall it find me?'" "Ah," said the doctor; 
" you have come to the wrong physician." "Is there no hope for 
me?" cried the young man. "I walk about in the daytime; I lie 
down at night, and it comes upon me continually — 'Eternity! and 
where shall I spend it?' Tell me, is there any hope for me." The 
doctor said: "Now, just sit down and be quiet. A few years ago 
I was an infidel. I did not believe in God, and was in the same 
condition in which you now are." The doctor took down his Bible, 
and turned to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and read: "He was 
wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; 
the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we 
are healed." And he read on through this chapter. When he had 
finished, the young man said: "Do you believe this, that he volun- 
tarily left heaven, came down to this earth, and suffered and died 
that we might be saved?" "Yes, I believe it. That brought me out 
of infidelity, out of darkness into light." and he preached Christ 
and his salvation and told him of heaven, and then suggested that 
they get down on their knees and pray. And when I went there in 
1867, a letter had been received from that young nobleman, who 
wrote to Dr. Winslow, in London, telling him that the question of 
"Eternity, and where he should spend it," was settled, and troubling 
him no more. My friends, this question of eternity and where we 



TO THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 403 

are going to spend it, forces itself upon every one of us. "We are 
staying here for a little day. Our life is but a fibre, and it will soon 
be snapped. I may be preaching my last sermon. To-night may 
find me in eternity. By the grace of God, say that you will spend 
it in heaven. All the hosts of hell cannot hinder you, if you make 
up your mind to come to heaven; because if God says; "Let him 
come," Who can resist you? If that little child sitting yonder says 
it will enter heaven, all the hosts of hell cannot keep it out. May 
God help you to spend your eternity in heaven; and may you say: 
" By the grace of God, I accept Jesus as my Redeemer. 



TO THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 

" He hath sent me to heal the brtfken-hearted." Luke 4:!19. 

If I were to ask this audience what Christ came into this world for' 
every one of you would say to save sinners; and then you would 
stop. A great many think that is all Christ came to do — to save sin- 
ners. Now, we are told that he came, to be sure, to " seek and save 
that which was lost;" but then he came to do more. He came "to 
heal the broken-hearted." In that 18th verse of the 4th chapter of 
Luke, which I read to you last night, he said that the Spirit of the 
Lord was upon him, and that he was " anointed to preach the gos- 
pel to the poor," and in the next sentence he tells us, he is "sent to 
heal the broken-hearted." In another place we are told, he came 
into the world to declare who the Father was, and reveal him to the 
sons of men. 

To-night I want to take up this one thought — that Christ was sent 
into the world "to heal the broken-hearted." When the Prince of 
Wales came to this country, a few years ago, the whole country was 
excited as to his purpose. What was his object in coming here? 
Had he come to look into our republican form of government, or our 
institutions; or was it simply to see and be seen? He came and he 
went, without telling us what he came for. When the Prince of 
Peace came into [this dark world, he did not come in any private 
way. He tells us that he came, not to see and be seen, but to "seek 
and save that which was lost," and also "to heal the broken-hearted." 
And in the face of this announcement, it is a mystery to me why 
those who have broken hearts will rather carry them year in and 



404 TO THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 

year out, than just bring them to this great physician. How many 
men in Chicago are just going down to their graves with a broken 
heart? They have carried their hearts weighted with trouble for 
years and years; and yet, when they open the Scriptures, they can 
see the passage telling us that he came here for the purpose of heal- 
ing the broken-hearted. He left heaven and all its glory to come to 
the world — sent by the Father, he tells us, for the purpose of healing 
the broken-hearted. 

You will find, my friends, that there is no class of people exempt 
from broken hearts. The rich and the poor suffer alike. There was 
a time, when I used to visit the poor, that I thought all the broken 
hearts were to be found among them; but within the last few years 
I have found there are as many broken hearts among the learned as 
the unlearned, the cultured as the uncultured, the rich as the poor. 
If you could but go up one of our avenues and down another, and 
reach the hearts of the people, and get them to turn out their whole 
story, you would be astonished at the wonderful history of every 
family. I remember, a few years ago, I had been out of the city for 
some weeks. When I returned, I started out to make some calls. 
The first place I went to I found a mother, her eyes red with weep- 
ing. I tried to find out what was troubling her, and she reluctantly 
opened her heart and told me all. She said: "Last night, my only 
boy came home about midnight, drunk. I didn't know that he was 
addicted to drunkenness; but this morning I found out that he has 
been drinking for weeks; and," she continued, "I would rather have 
seen him laid in the grave, than have him brought home in the condi- 
tion I saw him in last night." I tried to comfort her as best I could, 
when she told me her sad story. When I went away from that house, 
I didn't want to go into auy other house where there was family trou- 
ble. The very next house I went to, however, where some of the 
children who attended my Sunday-school resided, I found that death 
had been there and laid his hand on one of them. The mother spoke 
to me of her afflictions, and brought to me the playthings and the 
little shoes of the child; and the tears trickled down that moth- 
er's cheeks, as she related to me her sorrow. I got out as soon as 
possible, and I hoped I should see no more family trouble that day. 
The next visit I made was to a home where I found a wife with a 
bitter story. Her husband had been neglecting her for a long time; 
" and now," she said, " he has left me, and I don't know where he 
has gone. Winter is coming on, and I don't know what is going to 
become of my family." I tried to comfort her, and prayed with her, 
and endeavored to get her to lay all her sorrows on Christ. The next 
home I entered, I found a woman crushed and broken-hearted. She 
told me her boy had forsaken her, and she had no idea where he had 
gone. That afternoon, I made five calls; and in every home I found 
a broken heart. Every one had a sad tale to tell; and if you visited 



TO THE BEOKEN-HEAETED. 405 

any home in Chicago you would find the truth of the saying, that 
" there is a skeleton in every house." I suppose, while I am talking, 
you are thinking of the great sorrow in your own bosom. I do not 
know anything about you; but if I came round to every one of you, 
and you were to tell me the truth, I would hear a tale of sorrow. 
The very last man I spoke to, last night, was a young mercantile 
man, who told me his load of sorrow had been so great that, many 
times during the last few weeks, he had gone down to the lake and 
had been tempted to plunge in and end his existence. His burden 
seemed too much for him. Think of the broken hearts in Chicago, 
to-night! They could be numbered by hundreds — yea, by thousands. 
All over this city are broken hearts. If all the sorrow represented in 
this great city was written in a book, this building couldn't hold that 
book; and you couldn't read it in a long life-time. This earth is not 
a stranger to tears, neither is the present the only time when they 
could be found in abundance. From Adam's days to ours, tears have 
been shed; and a wail has been going up to heaven from the broken- 
hearted. And I say it again, it is a mystery to me how all those 
broken hearts can keep away from him who has come to heal them. 
For six thousand years, that cry of sorrow has been going up to God. 
We find the tears of Jacob put on record, when he was told that his 
own son was no more. His sons and daughters tried to give him 
comfort; but he refused to be comforted. We are also told of the 
tears of King David. I can see him, as the messenger brings the 
news of the death of his son, exclaiming in anguish: "O, Absalom, 
my son, would that I had died for thee!" And when Christ came 
into the world, the first sound he heard was woe — the wail of those 
mothers in Bethlehem ; and from the manger to the cross, he was 
surrounded with sorrow. We are told that he ofte.i looked up to 
heaven and sighed. I believe it was because of so much suffering 
around him. It was on his right hand and on his left — everywhere 
on earth; and the thought that he had come to relieve the people of 
the earth of their burdens, and so few would accept him, made him 
sorrowful. He came for that purpose. Let the hundreds of thou- 
sands just cast their burdens on him. He has come to bear them, as 
well as our sins. He will bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. 
There is not a burdened son of Adam in Chicago who cannot but be 
freed, if he will only come to him. 

Let me call your attention to this little word "sent," "He hath 
sent me." Take your Bibles and read about those who have been 
sent by God, and one thought will come to you — that no man who 
has ever been sent by God to do his work has ever failed. No mat- 
ter how great the work, how mighty the undertaking; no matter how 
many difficulties had to be encountered, when they were sent from 
God they were sure to succeed. God sent Moses down to Egypt, 
to bring 3,000 000 people out of bondage, The idea would nave 



406 TO THE BKOKEN-HEARTED. 

seemed absurd to most people. Fancy a man with an impediment 
in his speech, without an army, without generals, with no record, 
bringing 3,000,000 people from the power of a great nation like that 
of the Egyptians. But God sent him; and what was the result? 
Pharaoh said they should not go; and the great king and all his 
army were going to prevent them. But did he succeed? God sent 
Moses, and he didn't fail. We find that God sent Joshua to the walls 
of Jericho, and he marched around the walls; and at the proper time 
those walls came tumbling down, and the city fell into his hands. 
God sent Elijah to stand before Ahab, and we read the result. Sam- 
son and Gideon were sent by God, and we are told in the scriptures 
what they accomplished; and so all through the Word, we find that 
when God sent men they have never failed. Now, do you think for a 
moment that God's own Son, sent to us, is going to fail? If Moses, 
Elijah, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, and all these mighty men sent by 
God succeeded in doing their work, do you think the Son of man is 
going to fail? Do you think, if he has come to heal broken hearts, 
he is going to fail. Do you think there is a heart so bruised and 
broken that it can't be healed by him? He can heal them all; but 
the great trouble is that men won't come. If there is a broken heart 
here to-night, just bring it to the Great Physician. If you break an 
arm or a leg, you run off and get the best physician. If you have a 
broken heart, you needn't go to a doctor or a minister with it; the 
best physician is the Great Physician. In the days of Christ, they 
didn't have hospitals or physicians, as we have now. When a man 
was sick, he was taken to the door; and the passer-by prescribed for 
Lim. If a man came along who had had the same disease as the suf- 
ferer, he just told him what he had done to get cured. I remember 
1 had a disease for a few months; and when I recovered, if I met a 
man with the same disease, I had to tell him what cured me. I could 
not keep the prescription all to myself. When he came there and 
found the sick at their cottage door, the sufferers found more medi- 
cine in his words than there was in all the prescriptions of that 
coantry. He is a mighty physician, who has come to heal every 
wounded heart in this building and in Chicago, to-night. You 
needn't run to any other physician. The great difficulty is that 
people try to get some other physician — they go to this creed and 
that creed, to this doctor of divinity and that one; instead of coming 
direct to the Master. He has told us that his mission is to heal the 
broken hearts, and if he has said this, let us take him at his word 
and just ask him to heal. 

I was thinking, to-day, of the difference between those who knew 
Christ, when trouble comes upon them, and those who know him not. 
I know several members of families in this city who are just stumb- 
ling into their graves over trouble. I know two widows in Chicago, 
who are weeping and moaning over the death of their husbands; 



TO THE BKOKEN-HEAKTED. 407 

and their grief is just taking them to their graves. Instead of bring- 
ing their burdens to Christ, they mourn day and night; and the 
result will be, that, in a few weeks or years at most, their sorrow will 
take them to their graves, when they ought to take it all to the Great 
Physician. Three years ago, a father took his wife and family on 
board that ill-fated French steamer. They were going to Europe, 
and when out on the ocean another vessel ran into her, and she went 
down. That mother, when I was preaching in Chicago, used to 
bring her two children to the meetings every night. It was one of 
the most beautiful sights I ever looked on, to see how those little 
children used to sit and listen, and to see the tears trickling down 
their cheeks when the Savior was preached. It seemed as if noboby else 
in that meeting drank in the truth as eagerly as those little ones. One 
night, when an invitation had been extended to all to go into the 
inquiry-room, one of these little children said, " Mamma, why can't 
I go in, too?" The mother allowed them to come into the room, and 
some friend spoke to them: and to all appearances, they seemed to 
understand the plan of salvation as well as their elders. When that 
memorable night came, that mother went down, and came up with- 
out her two children. Upon reading the news, I said, "It will kill 
her;" and I quitted my post in Edinburgh — the only time I left my 
post on the other side — and went down to Liverpool, to try and com- 
fort her. But when I got there, I found that the Son of God had 
been there before me; and instead of me comforting her, she com- 
forted me. She told me she could not think of those children as 
being in the sea; it seemed as if Christ had permitted her to take 
those children on that vessel only that they might be wafted to him, 
and had saved her life only that she might come back and work a 
little longer for him. When she got up the other day at a mothers' 
meeting in Farwell hall, and told her story, I thought I would tell 
the mothers of it the first chance I got. So if any of you have 
some great affliction; if any of you have lost a loved and loving 
father, mother, brother, husband, or wife, come to Christ; because 
God has sent him to heal the broken-hearted. 

Some of you, I can imagine, will say: "Ah, I could stand that af- 
fliction; I have something harder than that." I remember a mother 
coming to me, and saying: "It is easy enough for you to speak in 
that way; if you had the burden that I've got, you couldn't cast it 
on the Lord." "Why, is your burden so great that Christ can't 
carry it?" 1 asked. "No, it isn't too great for him to carry; but I 
can't put it on him." "That is your fault," I replied; and I find a 
great many people with burdens, who, rather than just come to him 
with them, strap them tighter on their backs and go away stagger 
ing under their load. I asked her the nature of her trouble, and she 
told me: "I have an only boy who is a wanderer on the face of the 
earth; I don't know where he is. If I only knew where he was, I 



408 TO THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 

would go round the world to find him. You don't know how I love 
that boy; this sorrow is killing me." "Why can't you take him to 
Christ? You can reach him at the throne, even though he be at the 
uttermost part of the world. Go tell God all about your trouble, 
and he will take away this; and not only that, but if yyu never see 
him on earth, God can give you faith that you will see your boy in 
heaven." And then I told her of a mother who lived down in the 
southern part of Indiana. Some years ago her boy came up to this 
city. He was a moralist. My friends, a man has to have more than 
morality to lean upon in this great city. He hadn't been here long 
before he was led astray. A neighbor happened to come up here, 
and found him one night in the streets drunk. When that neighbor 
went home, at first he thought he wouldn't say anything about it to 
the boy's father; but afterwards he thought it was his duty to tell. 
So, in a crowd in the street of that little town, he just took that 
father aside, and told him what he had seen in Chicago. It was a 
terrible blow. When the children had been put to bed that night he 
said to his wife: " Wife, I have bad news; I have heard from Chicago 
to-day." The mother dropped her work in an instant, and said, 
" Tell me what it is." " Well, our son has been seen on the streets 
of Chicago drunk." Neither of them slept that night; but they took 
their burden to Christ. About daylight, the mother said: " I don't 
know how, I don't know when or where, but God has given me faith 
to believe that our son will be saved and will never come to a drunk- 
ard's grave." One week after, that boy left Chicago. He couldn't 
tell why — an unseen power seemed to lead him to his mother's home; 
and the first thing he said on coming over the threshold was, "Mother, 
I have come home to ask you to pray for me;" and soon after he 
came back to Chicago, a bright and shining light. If you have got 
a burden like this, fathers, mothers, bring it to him and cast it on him, 
and he, the Great Physician, will heal your broken hearts. 

I can imagine, again, some of you saying, "How am I to do it?" 
My friends, go to him as personal friend. He is not a myth. What 
we want to do is, to treat Christ as we would treat an earthly friend- 
If you have sins, just go and tell him all about them; if you have 
some great burden, "Go bury thy sorrow" — bury it in his bosom. If 
you go to people and tell them of your cares, your sorrows, they will 
tell you they haven't time to listen. But he will not only hear 
your story, however long it be, but will bind your broken heart up. 
Oh, if there is a broken heart here to-night, bring it to Jesus; and I 
tell you upon authority, he will heal you. He has said, he will bind 
your wounds up; not only that, he will heal them. 

During the war I remember of a young man not twenty, who was 
court-martialled down in the front and sentenced to be shot. The 
story was this: The young fellow had enlisted; he was not obliged 
to, but he went off with another young man, and they were what we 



TO THE BROKEN-HEARTED. 409 

would call " chums." One night this companion was ordered out on 
picket duty, and he asked the young man to go for him. The next 
night, he was ordered out himself; and having been awake two 
nights, and not being used to it, fell asleep at his post, and for the 
offense he was tried and sentenced to death. It was right after the 
order issued by the President, that no interference should be allowed 
in cases of this kind. This sort of thing had become too frequent, 
and it must be stopped. When the news reached the father and 
mother in Vermont, it nearly broke their hearts. The thought that 
their son should be shot, was too great for them. They had no hope 
that he would be saved by anything they could do. But they had 
a little daughter, who had read the life of Abraham Lincoln and 
knew how he loved his own children, and she said: " If Abraham 
Lincoln knew how my father and mother loved my brother, he 
wouldn't let him be snot." That little girl thought this over, and 
made up her mind to go and see the President. She went to the 
White House, and the sentinel, when he saw her imploring looks, 
passed her in, and when she came to the door and told the private 
secretary that she wanted to see the President, he could not refuse 
her. She came into the chamber, and found Abraham Lincoln sur- 
rounded by his generals and counselors; and when he saw the lit- 
tle country girl, he asked her what she wanted. The little maid told 
her plain, simple story — how her brother, whom her father and 
mother loved very dearly, had been sentenced to be shot; how they 
were mourning for him, and if he was to die in that way it would 
break their hearts. The President's heart was touched with compas- 
sion, and he immediately sent a dispatch canceling the sentence and 
giving the boy a parol, so that he could come home and see that 
father and mother. I just tell you this to show you how Abraham 
Lincoln's heart was moved by compassion for the sorrow of that father 
and mother; and if he showed so much, do you think the Son of 
God will not have compassion upon you, sinner, if you only take that 
crushed, bruised heart to him? He will heal it. Have you got a 
drunken husband? Go tell him. He can make him a blessing to 
the church and to the world. Have you a profligate son? Go take 
your story to him, and he will comfort you, and bind up and heal 
your sorrow. What a blessing it is to have such a Savior. He has 
been sent " to heal the broken-hearted." May the text, if the ser- 
mon doesn't, reach every one here to-night; and may every crushed, 
broken, and bruised heart be brought to that Savior, and they will 
hear his comforting words. He will comfort you, as a mother com- 
forts her child, if you will only come in prayer and lay all your bur- 
dens before him. 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 

" But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world 
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Corinthians 4; 3,,4. 

You who have been here during the week have heard me speaking 
on the 4th chapter of Luke and 18th verse. I spoke on the first three 
clauses of that verse, and we have now come to the next clause, in 
which he tells us he came to give sight to the blind — for the recovery 
of sight to the blind. Paul tells us, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, 
4th chapter and 3d verse: "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them 
that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds 
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, who is the image of God, shall shine unto them." "If the 
gospel be hid" — "In whom the god of this world hath blinded." 
Now you may see this world is just one large blind asylum — it is full 
of blind people. Last Wednesday night, I tried to tell you that the 
world was full of broken hearts ; last night, I tried to tell you that 
the world was full of captives, bound hand and foot in sin; and to- 
night I tell you that it is full of blind people. Not only blind 
people, but they are bound and broken-hearted. You might say 
that nearly all those in the world come under the three heads. Now 
just look at the contrast between Satan and Christ. Satan breaks 
men's hearts; but Christ binds them up. Satan binds the people of 
this earth, hand and foot; but Christ breaks the fetters and sets them 
free. Satan makes us blind; but Christ opens our eyes. He came 
to do this; and just see how he wasVeceived. He went into that 
synagogue at Nazareth and preached this glorious gospel, and com- 
menced by telling them that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, 
and went on to tell them that he had come to save them; and what 
did they do? They thrust him out of the city, and took him to the 
brow of the hill; and would have hurled him into hell, if they could. 
And men have been as bitter toward the gospel all along these 
eighteen hundred years. Why, some men would tear the preacher 
of it limb from limb, if it wasn't for the law. Then we find when he 
goes to Bethany, and raises up the brother of Martha and Mary and 
binds up broken hearts as he went along and preaches mercy; and 
they want to kill him. We find him, in the 3d chapter of Mark, set- 
ting the captive free. Here we find a man possessed of demons, 
whom no one could cure, set at liberty by the Son of man; and in 
the healing, because they lost a few swine, they told him to depart 
from their coasts. Then we find him, just a few days before his 
death, almost on his way to Calvary, giving sight to that blind man. 
410 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 411 

And for all this they take him to that mount and nail him to a cross. 
Oh, what blindness! 

We are told that there are 3,000,000 people in the world who are 
called blind. Every one calls them blind because they haven't their 
natural sight. But do you ever think how many are spiritually 
blind in this world? Why, if there are 3,000,000 people in the 
world who have not their natural sight, how many do you suppose 
are spiritually blind? We sympathize with those who have lost 
their sight. Nothing appeals to our sympathy so readily. I believe 
I could raise thousands of dollars among you by telling you about 
some blind one who is suffering for the necessities of life, through 
that affliction. How many of you wouldn't put your hand in your 
pockets and give liberally? How it moves our compassion — how it 
moves our hearts, as we see the blind men, women or children in the 
streets. How your heart goes out to those poor unfortunates. I 
was at a meeting in London when I was there, and I heard a man 
speaking with wonderful power and earnestness. " Who is that 

man?" I asked, my curiosity being excited. " Why, that is Dr. ; 

he is blind." I felt some interest in this man, and at the close of the 
meeting I sought an interview; and he told me that he had been 
stricken blind when very young. His mother took him to a doctor, 
and asked him about his sight. "You must give up all hope," the 
doctor said, "your boy is blind, and will be forever." "What, do 
you think my boy will never see?" asked his mother. "Never 
again." The mother took her boy to her bosom and cried: "Oh, 
my boy, who will take care of you when I am gone — who will look 
to you!" forgetting the faithfulness of that God she had learned him 
to love. He became a servant of the Lord, and was permitted to 
print the Bible in twelve different languages, printed in the raised 
letters, so that all the blind people could read the scriptures them- 
selves. He had a congregation, my friends, of 3,000,000 people; 
and I think the blind man was one of the happiest beings in all Lon- 
don. He was naturally blind; but he had eyes to his soul, and could 
see a bright eternity in the future. He had built his foundation upon 
the living God. We pity those who have not their natural sight; 
but how you should pity yourself if you are spiritually blind. If we 
could get all the blind, spiritually, in this city! You talk about those 
great political meetings; they would be nothing to the crowd you 
would collect. Why, just look at all the men in this city who are 
blind; and many of them are in the churches. This has been the 
trouble with men always; Christ couldn't get men to understand they 
were blind. He couldn't even get his disciples to open their eyes 
until after he went up to heaven; and then they received the spiritual 
truth. How many are the professed children of God we read of in 
the book of Revelations? 

I think to-night I might pick up some of the different classes who 



412 SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 

are blind. I am somewhat acquainted with the rich men of this city; 
and I don't think it would take long to prove that the leading men 
of this city are blind — blind to their own interests. Take a man just 
spending all his strength and energies to get money. He is money 
blind; he is so blind in his pursuit that he cannot see the God of 
heaven. Money is his god. His cry is continually " Money, money;" 
and it is the cry of many here in Chicago. They don't care about 
God, don't care about salvation, don't heed their eternal condition, 
so long as they get money, money, money. And a great many of 
them have got it; but how lean their souls are. God has given them 
the desire of their heart; but he has given them leanness of soul. I 
heard of a man who had accumulated great wealth, and death came 
upon him suddenly; and he realized, as the saying is, that "there was 
no bank in the shroud," that he couldn't take anything away with 
him. We may have all the money on earth, but we must leave it 
behind us. He called a lawyer in and commenced to will away his 
property, before he went away. His little girl couldn't understand 
exactly where he was going, and she said, " Father, have you got a 
home in that land you are going to?" The arrow went down to his 
soul. "Got a home there?" The rich man had hurled away God, 
and neglected to secure a home there for the sake of his money; and 
he found it was now too late. He was money mad, and he was 
money blind. It wouldn't be right for me to give names; but I could 
tell you a good many here in Chicago who are going on in this way — 
just spending all their lives in the accumulation of what they cannot 
take with them. This is going on, while how many poor people are 
suffering for the necessaries of life. These men don't know they are 
blind — money is their god. 

There is another class who don't care so much for money. We 
might call them business blind. It is business, business, business 
with them all the time. In the morning, they haven't time to wor- 
ship. They must attend to business; must get down to the store. 
Down they run, and haven't time to get home to dinner. They 
mustn't let anyone get ahead of them; and they get home late at 
night, and their families have gone to bed. They scarcely ever see 
their children. It is all business with them. A man told me not 
long ago: "I must attend to my business, that is my iirst considera- 
tion, and see that none gets ahead of me." That is his god. I don't 
care if he is an elder or a deacon in the church. That is his god; 
the god of business has blinded him. Look at the merchant prince 
who died the other day. Men call him a clever, shrewd man. Call 
that shrewdness — to pile up wealth for a lifetime, and leave no record 
behind so that we know he has gone to heaven? He rose above 
men in his business; he devoted his whole soul to it, and the world 
called him a power among men; the world called him great. But 
let the Son of God write his obituary; let him put an epitaph on his 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 413 

tombstone, and it would be, "Thou fool." Man says, " I must attend 
to business first;" God says, "Seek first the kingdom of God." I 
don't care what your business may be; it may be honorable legiti- 
mate, and all that, and you think you must attend to it first. Bear 
in mind that God tells every man to seek his kingdom first. 

There is another class of people who are blind. They don't care 
so much about riches; they are not very ambitious to become rich; 
they don't spend their lives in business matters. They are politically 
blind. They are mad over politics; they are bound up in the subject. 
There will be a great many broken hearts in a week hence. They 
have got their favorite candidate to attend to, and they cannot find 
time to worship God. How little prayer there has been about the 
election. There has been a good deal of work; but how much pray- 
ing has been done? We want prayer to go up all over our land, that 
high and honest men may rule over us. But they are so excited over 
this election that they have no time to pray to the God of heaven. 
They are politically blind. How many men within our recollection, 
who have set their hearts upon the Presidential chair, have gone 
down to the grave with disappointment? They were poor, blind 
men; and the world called them great. Oh, how foolish; how blind. 
They didn't seek God; they only sought one thing — greatness — po- 
sition and office. They were great, brilliant, clever men; but when 
they were summoned into the presence of their God, what a wreck. 
Men so brilliant might have wielded an influence for the Son of God 
that would have lived in the hearts of the people for generations to 
come; and the streams of their goodness might have flowed long 
after they went to heaven. But they lived for the world, and their 
works went to dust. 

But a greater number of people don't care for business or pol- 
itics; they only want a little money, so as to get pleasure. How 
many men have been blinded by pleasure. A lady told me in the 
inquiry-room she would like to become a Christian; but there was a 
ball coming on, and she didn't want to become a Christian until after 
the ball. The ball was worth more to her than the kingdom of God. 
For this ball she would put off the kingdom of God until it was 
over, forgetting that death might come to her in the meantime and usher 
her into the presence of God. How blind she was; and many are 
just like her. The kingdom of God is offered to them without money 
and without price; and yet for a few days of pleasure they forfeit 
heaven, and everything dear to their eternity. I was talking to a 
lady who, with the tears running down her cheeks upon my speak- 
ing to her, said: "The fact is, if I become a Christian I have to give 
up all pleasure. I cannot go to a theatre; I cannot read any novels; 
I cannot play cards. I have nothing else to do." Oh, what blind- 
ness! Look at the pleasure of being taken into the Lord's vineyard, and 
the joy and luxury of working for him and leading souls to Christ. 



414 SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 

And people, with their eyes wide open, would rather bend down to 
the god of pleasure than become Christians. 

Then there is the god of fashion. How many women just devote 
their lives to it. They want to see the last bonnet, the last cloak, 
the last dress; they can't think of anything else. Said a lady to me: 
"I am always thinking of fashion; it don't matter if I get down on 
my knees to pray, I am always thinking of a new dress." You may 
laugh at this, but it is true. Pleasure in the ball-room and fashion 
is the god of a great many people. Oh, that we may lift our eyes 
to something nobler. Suppose you don't have so many dresses, and 
give something to the poor, you will have something then which will 
give you joy and comfort, that will last you always. I pity the man 
or woman that lives for the day like the butterfly; those whose minds 
are fixed upon fashion and pleasure, and have no time to look to 
their perishing soul. A good many people don't know they 
are blind. Look at that young man. You call him a fast young 
man. He has got a salary of $1,000; and it costs him $3,000 to live. 
Where does he get the money? Where does it come from? His 
father cannot give it him, because he is poor. His employer begins 
to get suspicious. "I only give him $1,000 a year; and he is living 
at the rate of $3,000." By and by, he looks into his account book 
and finds it overdrawn. Thus he is ruined — character blasted. Oh, 
how many are of this stamp in Chicago! It is only a question of 
time. How many young men have we got just living beyond their 
income — taking money out of their employer's drawer. They say: 
"Well, I am going to the theatre to-night, and I will just take a 
dollar; will put it back next week." But when next week comes,- 
he hasn't put it back; and takes another dollar. He has taken two 
dollars now. He keeps on draw, draw, drawing, when by and by it 
all comes out. He loses his place, don't get any letters of rec- 
ommendation, and the poor man is ruined. My friends, this is not the 
description of an isolated case; this class is all over the country. I 
wish I could send you the letters I get about just such cases. I got 
one, the other day, from a young mother with a family of beautiful 
children. She told me how happy they had lived — husband, wife, 
and children; and how one night her husband came home excited, 
his face white with terror, and said: "I've got to fly from justice. 
Good-bye." He has gone from her, and she said it seemed as if she 
could die; her husband, disgraced and starving, couldn't get any- 
thing to do. Her cry seemed to be, " Help, help me." Is not the 
country full of such cases? Is it not blindness and madness for men 
to go on in this way. If any one is here to-night following in the 
way of these men, I pray God your eyes may be opened before you 
are led to death and ruin. 

You know we had a full meeting to-day, and the subject was In- 
temperance; How many young men are there who spend their time 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. il5 

in the saloons of the city? I am afraid many will be led astray next 
Tuesday. I always dread an election day; I generally see so many 
young men beastly drunk. They are led away; and that is another 
quick road down to hell. May the young men see the folly of this, 
and on that day stand firm. May God open your eyes! How many 
young men are there whose characters have been blasted by strong- 
drink. How many brilliant men in the Chicago bar have gone down 
to death by it. Some of the noblest statesmen, some of the most 
brilliant orators and men of all professions, have been borne down 
to the drunkard's grave. May God open your eyes to show the folly 
of tampering with strong drink. Now, many men say, "I am not 
going down to the grave of a drunkard." They think they have 
strength to stop when they like. When it gets hold, there is noth- 
ing within us by which we can save ourselves. He alone can give 
you power to resist the cup of temptation: he alone can give you 
power to overcome its influence, if you only will believe him. The 
god of this world has been trying to make you believe that man can 
do it himself, and Christ will have nothing to do with him. The 
god of this world is a liar. I come with authority to tell you — I 
don't care how far gone you are; don't care how blessed you may 
be — that the Son of God can and will save you if you only believe 
him. If there is one here to-night under the power of strong drink, 
come to-night. We lift up our voice to warn you. 

Look at that man in a boat on Niagara River. He is only about 
a mile from the rapids. A man on the bank shouts to him: "Young 
man, young man, the rapids are not far away; you'd better pull for 
the shore." "You attend to your own business; I will take care of 
myself," he replies. Like a great many people here, and ministers, 
too, they don't want any evangelist here — don't want any help, how- 
ever great the danger ahead. On he goes, sitting coolly in his boat. 
Now ne has got a little nearer; and a man from the bank of the 
river sees his danger, and shouts: " Stranger, you'd better pull for 
the shore; if you go further you'll be lost. You can be saved now, 
if you pull in." "Mind your business, and you'll have enough to 
do; I'll take care of myself." Like a good many men, they are 
asleep to the danger that's hanging over tnem, while they are in the 
current. And I say, drinking young men, don't you think you are 
standing still. You are in the current; and if you don't pull for a 
rock of safety, you will go over the precipice. On he goes. I can 
see him in the boat, laughing at the danger. A man on the bank is 
looking at him, and he lifts up his voice and cries: "Stranger, 
stranger, pull for the shore; if you don't you will lose your life." 
And the young man laughs at him, mocks him. That is the way 
with hundreds in Chicago. If you go to them and point out their 
danger, they will jest and joke at you. By and by, he say: " I think 
I hear the rapids — yes, I hear them roar." And he seizes his oars 



416 SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 

and pulls with all his strength; but the current is too great, and 
nearer and nearer he is drawn on to that abyss, until he gives one 
unearthly scream, and over he goes. Ah, my friends, this is the case 
with hundreds in this city. They are in the current of riches, of 
pleasure, of drink, that will take them to the whirlpool. Satan has 
got them blindfolded; and they are on their road to the bottomless 
pit. 

We hear some men say, in a jesting way: " Oh, we are sowing our 
wild oats; we will get over this by and by." I have seen men reap 
their wild oats. It's all well enough sowing; but when it comes to 
the reaping, it's a different thing. I rememher, I went home one 
night and found all the people in alarm. They had seen a man come 
running down the street ; and as he approached the house he gave 
an unearthly roar, and in terror they bolted the door. He came 
right up to my door, and instead of ringing the bell, just tried to 
push the door in. They asked him what he wanted, and he told 
them he wanted to see me. They said I was at the meeting, and 
away he ran; and they could hear him groan as he disappeared. I 
was coming along North Clark street, and he shot past me like an 
arrow. But he had seen me, and turned and seized me by the arm, 
saying eagerly: "Can I be saved to-night? The devil is coming to 
take me to hell at one o'clock to-night." "My friend, you are mis- 
taken." I thought the man was sick. But he persisted, that the 
devil had oome and laid his hand upon him, and told him he might 
have till o« \ o'clock; and said, "Won't you go up to my room and 
sit with me ?" I got some men up to his room, to see to him. At 
one o'clock, the devils came into that room; and all the men in that 
room could not hold him. He was reaping what he had sown. When 
the Angel of Death came and laid his cold hand on him, oh, how he 
cried for mercy — how he beseeched for pardon. Ah, yes, young 
men, you may say in a laughing and jesting way, you are sowing 
your wild oats; but the reaping time is coming. May God show 
you to-night what folly it is — what a miserable life you are leading. 
May we lift our heart here to the God of all grace, so that we may 
see our lost and ruined condition if we do not come to him. Christ 
stands ready and willing to save — to save to-night all those who are 
willing to be saved. 



TRUE REPENTANCE. • 

* l And now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. 1 " Acts 17: 80. 

You will find my text to-night in the 17th chapter of Acts, part 
of the 30th verse: "And now commandeth all men everywhere to 
repent." I have heard a number of complaints about the preaching 
in the Tabernacle, that repentance has not been touched upon. The 
fact is, that I have never had very great success in preaching upon 
repentance. When I have preached it, people haven't repented. 
I've had far more success when I've preached Christ's goodness. 
But to-night I will preach about repentance; so you will have no 
more cause of complaint. I believe in repentance, just as much as 
I believe in the Word of God. When John the Baptist came to 
preach to that Jewish nation, his one cry was, "Repent! repent!" 
But when Christ came he changed it to, "The blood of the Lamb 
taketh away the sin of the world." I would rather cry, " The blood 
of the Lamb taketh away the sin of the world," than talk about re- 
pentance. And when Christ came, we find him saying, " Repent 
ye;" but he soon pointed them to something higher — he told them 
about the goodness of God. It is the goodness of God that pro- 
duces repentance. When, upon the Day of Pentecost, they asked 
what to do to be saved, we find him telling men, " Repent, every 
one of you." When Christ sent his disciples out to preach, two by 
two, we find the message he gave them to deliver was, "Repent ye, 
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It is clearly preached 
throughout the Scriptures. There is a good deal of trouble among peo- 
ple about what repentance really is. If you ask people what it is, 
they will tell you " It is feeling sorry." If you ask a man if he re- 
pents, he will tell you: " Oh, yes; I generally feel sorry for my sins." 
That is not repentance. It is something more than feeling sorry. 
Repentance is turning right about, and forsaking sin. I wanted to 
speak on Sunday about that verse in Isaiah, which says: " Let the 
guilty forsake his way, and the unrighteousnes man his thoughts." 
That is what it is. If a man don't turn from his sin, he won't be ac- 
cepted of God; and if righteousness don't produce a turning about 
— a turning from bad to good — it isn't true righteousness. 

Unconverted people have got an idea that God is their enemy. 
Now, let me impress this, and I told you the same the other night, 
God hates sin with a perfect hatred. He will punish sin wherever 
he finds it; yet he, at the same time, loves the sinner, and wants him 
to repent and turn to him. If men will only turn, they will 
417 27 



418 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 



find mercy; and find it just the moment they turn to him. 
You will find men sorry for their misdeeds. Cain, no doubt, 
was sorry; but that was not true repentance. There is no cry 
recorded in the Scriptures as coming from him, "O my God, 
O my God, forgive me." There was no repentance in his only 
feeling sorry. Look at Judas. There is no sign that he turned to 
God — no sign that he came to Christ asking forgiveness. Yet, 
probably, he felt sorry. He was, very likely, filled with remorse 
and despair; but he didn't repent. Repentance is turning to him 
who loved us and gave himself for us. Look at king Saul, and see 
the difference between him and king David. David fell as low as 
Saul, and a good deal lower — he fell from a higher pinnacle; but 
what was the difference between the two? David turned back to 
God and confessed his sin, and got forgiven. But look at king Saul. 
There was no repentance there; and God couldn't save him till he 
repented. You will find, all through the Scriptures, where men 
have repented, God has forgiven them. Look at that publican, when 
he went up to pray; he felt his sin so great that he couldn't look up 
to heaven — all he could do was to smite his heart and cry, " God 
forgive me, a sinner." There was turning to God — repentance; and 
the man went down to his home forgiven. Look at that prodigal. 
His father couldn't forgive him while he was still in a foreign land, 
and squandering his money in riotous living; but the moment he 
came home repentant, how soon that father forgave him — how quick 
he came to meet him with the word of forgiveness. It wouldn't 
have done any good to forgive the boy while he was in that foreign 
country, unrepentant. He would have despised all favors and 
blessings from his father. That is the position the sinner stands to- 
ward God. He cannot be forgiven and get his 'blessing, until he 
comes to God, repenting of all his sins and asking the blessing. 

Now, we read in scripture that God deals with us as a father deals 
with a son. Fathers and mothers, you who have children, let me 
ask, by way of illustration: Suppose you go home, and you find that, 
while you have been here, your boy has gone to your private drawer 
and stolen five dollars of your money. You go to him and say, 
"John, did you take that money?" " Yes, father; I took that money," 
he replies. When you hear him saying this without any apparent 
regret, you won't forgive him. You want to get at his conscience; 
you know it would do him an injury to forgive him, unless he con- 
fesses his wrong. Suppose he won't do it, "Yes," he says, "I 
stole your money; but I don't think I've done wrong." The mother 
cannot, the father cannot, forgive him; unless he sees he has done 
wrong, and wants forgiveness. That's the trouble with the sinners 
in Chicago. They've turned against God, broken his command- 
ments, trampled his law under their feet, and their sins hang upon 
them; until they show signs of repentance, their sin will remain. 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 419 

But the moment they see their iniquity and come to God, forgive- 
ness will be given then, and their iniquity will be taken out of their 
way. Said a person to me the other day: "It is my sin that stands 
between me and Christ." "It isn't, I replied; "it's your own will."' 
That's what stands between the sinner and forgiveness. Christ will 
take all your iniquities away, if you will. Men are so proud that 
they won't acknowledge and confess before God. Don't you see on 
the face of it, if your boy won't repent you cannot forgive him; and 
how is God going to forgive a sinner, if he don't repent? If he was 
allowing an unrepentant sinner into his kingdom, there would be 
war in heaven in twenty-four hours. You cannot live in a house 
with a boy who steals everything he can lay his hands on. You 
would have to banish him from your house. Look at King David 
with his son Absalom. After he had been sent away, he gets his 
friends to intercede for him, to get him back to Jerusalem. They 
succeeded in getting him back to the city; but some one told the 
king that he hadn't repented, and his father would not see him. 
After he had been in Jerusalem some time, trying his best to get into 
favor and position again without repentance, he sent a friend, Joab, 
to the king, and told him to say to his father: "Examine me, and 
if you find no iniquity in me, take me in." He was forgiven; but 
the most foolish thing King David ever did was to forgive that 
young prince. What was the result? He drove him from the 
throne. That's what the sinner would do, if he got into heaven un- 
repentant. He would just drive God from the throne — tear the 
crown from him. No unrepentant sinner can get into the kingdom 
of heaven. 

Ah, some people say; "I believe in the mercy of God; I don't be- 
lieve God will allow one to perish; I believe everyone will get to 
heaven." Look at those antediluvians. Do you think he swept all 
those sinners, all those men and women who were too wicked to live 
on earth — do you believe he swept them all into heaven, and left the 
only righteous man to wade through the flood? Do you think he 
would do this. And yet many men believe all will go into heaven. 
The day will come when you will wake up, and know that you have 
been deceived by the devil. No unrepentant sinner will ever get 
into heaven. Unless they forsake their sin, they cannot enter there. 
The law of God is very plain on this point, " Except a man repent." 
That's the language of scripture. And when this is so plainly set 
down, why is it that men fold their arms and say, " God will take 
me into heaven anyway." Suppose a governor, elected to-day, 
comes into office in a few months; and he finds a great number of 
criminals in prison, and he goes and says: "I feel for those prison- 
ers. They cannot stay in jail any longer." Suppose some murders 
have been committed, and he says: "I am tender hearted; I can't 
punish those men;" and he opens the prison doors, and lets them all 



420 TRUE REPENTANCE. 

out. How long would that governor be in his position? These very- 
men, who are depending on the mercy of God, would be the first to 
raise their voice against that governor. These men would say: 
"These murderers must be punished or society will be imperiled; 
life will not be safe." And yet they believe in the mercy of God, 
whether they repent or not. My dear friends, don't go on under 
that delusion; it is a snare of the devil. I tell you the word of God 
is true; and it tells us, "Except a man repent," there is not one 
ray of hope held out. May the Spirit of God open your eyes to- 
night, and show you the truth — let it go into your hearts. "Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts." 

Now, my friends, repentance is not fear. A great many people say, I 
don't preach up the terrors of religion. I don't want to — don't want 
to scare men into the kingdom of God. I don't believe in preaching 
that way. If I did get some in that way, they would soon get out. 
If I wanted to scare men into heaven, I would just hold the terror 
of hell over their heads and say, "Go right in." But that's not the 
way to win men. They don't have any slaves in heaven. They are 
all sons; and they must accept salvation voluntarily. Terror never 
brought a man in yet. Look at a vessel tossed upon the billows; and 
the sailors think it is going to the bottom, and death is upon them. 
They fall down on their knees, and you would think they were all 
converted. They ain't converted; they're only scared. There's no 
repentance there ; and as soon as the storm is over and they get on 
shore, they are the same as ever. All their terror has left them; 
they've forgotten it, and they fall into their old habits. How many 
men have, while lying on a sick bed, and they thought they saw the 
terrors of death gathering around them, made resolutions to live a 
new life if they only get well again; but the moment they get better, 
they forget all about their resolutions. It was only scare with them ; 
that's not what we want to feel. Fear is one thing and repentance 
is another. True repentance is the Holy Ghost showing sinners 
their sin. That's what we want. May the Holy Ghost reveal to 
each one here to-night out of Christ their lost condition, unless they 
repent. 

If God threw Adam out of Eden on account of one sin, how can 
you expect to get into the heavenly paradise with ten thousand? I 
can imagine some one saying, " I haven't got anything to repent of." 
If you are one of those Pharisees, I can tell you that this sermon will 
not reach your heart. I would like to find one man who could come 
up ht^re and say, " I have no sin." If I was one of those who thought 
I had no sin to repent of, I'd never go to church; I would certainly 
not come up to the Tabernacle. But could you find a man walking 
the streets of Chicago, who could say this honestly? I don't believe 
there has a day passed over my head during the last twenty years but, 
when night came, I found I had some sin to repent of. It is impos- 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 421 

sible for a man to live without sinning; there are so many things 
to draw awaj the heart and affections of men from God. I feel as if 
I ought to be repenting all the time. Is there a man here who can 
say honestly: "1 have not got a sin that I need ask forgiveness for? 
I haven't one thing to repent of?" Some men seem to think that 
God has got ten different laws for each of those ten commandments; 
but if you have been guilty of breaking one, you are guilty of 
breaking all. If a man steals five dollars and another steals five 
hundred dollars, the one is as guilty of theft as the other. A man 
who has broken one commandment of God is as guilty as he who 
has broken ten. If a man don't feel this, and come to him repentant, 
and turn his face from sin toward God, there is not a ray of hope. 
Nowhere can you find one ray from Genesis to Revelation. Don't 
go out of this Tabernacle saying, " I have nothing to repent of." I 
heard of a man who said he had been converted. A friend asked 
him if he had repented. "No," said he; "I never trouble my head 
about it." My friends, when a man becomes converted the work 
has to be a little deeper than that. He has to become repentant, 
and try to atone for what he has done. If he is at war with any one, 
he has to go and be reconciled to his enemy. If he doesn't, his con- 
version is the work of Satan. When a man turns to God, he is made 
a new creature — a new man. His impulses all the time are guided 
by love. He loves his enemies, and tries to repair all wrong he has 
done. This is a true sign of conversion. If this sign is not appa- 
rent, his conversion has never got from his head to his heart. We 
must be born of the Spirit; our hearts must be regenerated — born 
again. When a man repents, and turns to the God of heaven, then 
the work is deep and thorough. I hope that every one here to-night 
will see the necessity of true repentance, when they come to God for 
a blessing; and may the Spirit move you to ask it to-night. 

I can imagine some of you saying, " How am I to repent to-night?" 
My friends, there are only two parties in the world. There has been 
a great political contest here to-day; and there have been two sides. 
We will not know before forty-eight hours which side has triumphed. 
There is great interest now to know which side has been the stronger. 
Now, there are* two parties in this world — those for Christ and those 
against him; and to change to Christ's party is only moving from 
the old party to the new. You know that the old party is bad, and 
the new one is good, and yet you don't change.. Suppose 1 was 
called to New York to-night, and went down to the Illinois Central 
Depot to catch the ten o'clock train. I go on the train, and a friend 
should see me and say: "You are on the wrong train for New York; 
you are on the Burlington train." "Oh, no," I say, "you are wrong; 
I asked some one, and he told me this was the right train." " Why," 
this friend replies, "I've been in Chicago for twenty years, and know 
that you are on the wrong train;" and the man talks, and at last con- 



422 TRUE REPENTANCE. 

vinces me; but I sit still, although I believe I am in the wrong train 
for New York, and I go on to Burlington. If you don't get off the 
wrong train and get on the right one, you will not reach heaven. If 
you have not repented, seize your baggage to-night and go to the 
other train. 

If a man is not repentant, his face is turned away from God; and 
the moment his face is turned toward God, peace and joy . follow. 
There are a great many people hunting after joy, after peace. Dear 
friends, if you want to find it to-night, just turn to God; and you 
will get it. You need not hunt for it any longer; only- come and 
get it. When I was a little boy, I remember I tried to catch my 
shadow. I don't know if you were ever so foolish: but I remember 
running after it, and trying to get ahead of it. I could not see why 
the shadow always kept ahead of me. Once I happened to be racing 
with my face to the sun ; and I looked over my head and saw my 
shadow coming back of me, and it kept behind me all the way. It 
is the same with the Sun of Righteousness; peace and joy will go 
with you while you go with your face toward him; and these people 
who are walking with the back to the sun, are in darkness all the 
time. Turn to the light of God, and the reflection will flash in your 
heart. Don't say that God will not forgive you. It is only your 
will which keeps his forgiveness from you. 

My sister, I remember, told me her little boy said something naugh- 
ty one morning. When his father said to him, " Sammy, go and ask 
your mother's forgiveness." " I won't," replied the child. " If you 
don't ask your mother's forgiveness, I will put you to bed." It was 
early in the morning — before he went to business; and the boy 
didn't think he would do it. He said, "I won't," again. They un- 
dressed him, and put him to bed. The father came home at noon, 
expecting to find his boy playing about the house. He didn't see 
him about, and asked his wife where he was. " In bed still." So 
he went up to the room, and sat down by the bed, and said, " Sam- 
my, I want you to ask your mother's forgiveness." But the answer 
was, "No." The father coaxed and begged, but could not induce 
the child to ask forgiveness. The father went away, expecting cer- 
tainly that, when he came home at night, the child would have got 
all over it. At night, however, when he got home he found the little 
fellow still in bed. He had lain there all day. He went to him and 
tried to get him to go to his mother; but it was no use. His mother 
went, and was equally unsuccessful. That father and mother could 
not sleep any that night. They expected every moment to hear the 
knock at their door by their little son. Now, they wanted to forgive 
the boy. My sister told me it was just as if death had come into 
their home. She never passed through such a night. In the morn- 
ing, she went to him and said: "Now, Sammy, you are going to ask 
my forgiveness;" but the boy turned his face to the wall and wouldd't 



TRUE REPENTANCE. 423 

speak. The father came home at noon, and the boy was as stubborn 
as ever. It looked as though the child was going to conquer. It 
was for the good of the boy that they didn't want to give him his 
own way. It is a great deal better for us to submit to God than 
have our own way. Our own way will lead us to ruin; God's way 
leads to life everlasting. The father went off to his office; and 
that afternoon my sister went in to her son, about four o'clock, and 
began to reason with him. And, after talking for some time, 
she said : " Now, Sammy, say ' mother.' " " Mother," said the boy. 
"Now say 'for.' " "For." "Now just say 'give.'" And the boy 
repeated " Give." " Me," said the mother. " Me," and the little 
fellow fairly leaped out of bed. "I have said it," he cried; "take 
me down to papa, so that I can say it to him." Oh, sinner, go to 
him and ask his forgiveness. This is repentance. It is coming in 
with a broken heart, and asking the King of heaven to forgive you. 
Don't say you can't. It is a lie. It is your stubborn will — it is 
your stubborn heart. 

Now let me say here, to-night, you are in a position to be recon- 
ciled to God now. You are not in a position to delay this recon- 
ciliation a week, a day, an hour. God tells you now. Look at that 
beautiful steamer Atlantic. There she is in the bay, groping her 
way along a rocky coast. The captain don't know, as his vessel 
plows through' that ocean, that in a few moments it will strike a rock, 
and hundreds of those on board will perish in a watery grave. If he 
knew, in a minute he could strike a bell; and the steamer would be 
turned from the rock, and the people would be saved. The vessel 
has struck, but he knows now too late. You have time now. In 
five minutes, for all you and I know, you may be in eternity. God 
hangs a mist over our eyes as to our summons. So now God calls. 
Now, everyone repent, and all your sins will be taken from you. I 
have come in the name of the Master, to ask you to turn to God now. 
May God help you to turn and live. 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US? 

Now I am not going to take a text to-night. I am going to take a 
subject, and that subject will be "What Christ is to us." And if 
you say when I get through, that Christ is not what I try to make 
him out to be, it will be your own fault and no one else's; because 
he is a thousand times more to every soul here than I can make him 
out to be to-night. A man cannot tell what Christ is in a few mo- 
ments — cannot begin to express what Christ is to us. I remember 
talking on the same subject, at a meeting in the north of England. 
I felt that I had not said enough about him, when I got through. 
When I went home I went with a Scotchman, and I was complain- 
ing and groaning over the meeting, and told him that I had only 
got half through with my subject; when the Scotchman turned to 
me and said, " Ye dinna expect to tell a' about Christ in one hour, 
d'ye? Why, 'twould tak a' eternity to do it, mon." I thought I 
could get through in an hour; but, my friends, it cannot be done. 
I'm not going to talk to you an hour to-night, however. And now I 
would like to call your attention to the 2d chapter of Luke and 11th 
verse: " For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Sav- 
ior, which is Christ the Lord." That's what Christ offers to be to 
every soul that comes into this world. God gives him to the world, 
" Unto you is born this day a Savior." God gave him to free us 
from our sins; that is what Christ came into the world to do. To 
get him, we must first meet him at Calvary as our Jesus, our pu- 
rifier, our sanctification, our Redemption. We must first pass Cal- 
vary, before we can see him as our Savior. And he wants you to 
come there; he wants to be a Savior to every soul in Chicago. He 
is not only a Savior, who takes us from the pit of hell, but he de- 
livers us from sin. A great many people have a wrong idea of 
Christ. They think he only saves us from hell; but he keeps us 
from sin, day by day. God knew a great deal better what the world 
needed than ourselves. Therefore he gave us Christ; not only to 
save us from death, but to free us from sin. He is not only a Savior; 
he is a Redeemer. Redemption is more real than salvation. I asked 
a man, some time ago, why he thought so much about a certain man. 
I noticed that he could not speak of him but tears came into his 
eyes; and sol asked him: "Why is it that you love that man as you 
do?" "Why, Mr. Moody," he said, "that man saved me." He told 
me in confidence how he got involved; he took what did not belong 
to him, thinking he could replace it in a few weeks; but when the 
424 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US ? 425 

time came found he could not. In a week or two exposure would 
come; and it would be sure ruin to him, wife and family. How he 
went to a friend and poured out his heart, and how that friend ad- 
vanced the money and paid the debt; and, he added, "I would be 
willing to lay down my life for that friend. He saved me." It was 
out of gratitude to that man that he was willing to give his life for 
him. When we appreciate what redemption is, and what Christ has 
done for us, we are willing to lay down our life for him — sacrifice 
everything for his sake. 

Redemption is more. It is buying back, for we are told in Gala- 
tions, "He hath redeemed us from the curse." The curse of the 
law rests upon every son of Adam — " He hath redeemed us from the 
curse of the law." Redemption is buying back. He has bought us. 
back from sentence of justice. We belong to him — " He hath re- 
deemed us by his blood." I remember, I was going from my 
home to preach in a neighboring village. My brother was with me, 
and I saw a young man driving before us. I said to my brother: 
u Who is that young man ; I've never seen him before." " Do you 
see that farm, those beautiful buildings, do you see all these fields, 
and the pasture? That is his farm. His father was a drunkard and 
squandered his money, buried his home in debt, and died. His 
mother had to go to the poor-house. That young man went away, 
earned money, came back and redeemed the farm, and took his 
mother from the poor-house; and he is looked upon as one of the 
noblest young men in the country." That's what Christ is doing for 
us. Adam sold us very cheap; and Christ comes and redeems us — 
does it without any cost. He is more than a Savior and a Redeemer 
— he is a Deliverer. A great many people go to Calvary, and be- 
lieve he is their Redeemer; but they forget that he came to deliver 
us from all temptation, from all appetite, from all lust. Now, when 
God put the children of Israel behind the blood of Goshen, they 
were safe. When they came to the Red Sea, and they heard the 
king of Egypt with his mighty army, his horsemen, and his chariots 
came rolling on to their destruction, it was then that the God of 
heaven showed his power as a deliverer. He said to Moses, " Stretch 
out thy rod;" and the sea opened, and his chosen people passed over 
in safety. God is a deliverer of all his children, whatever you may 
be. He is a great physician to us all; and he will deliver you from 
all your difficulties. 

In the 5th chapter of Mark, we see him as a deliverer. I do not- 
thin k that God ever found harder cases in Chicago, than those were 
there. We have got hospitals for the incurables; and if they had 
had them in those days, these cases would have been put there. 
First look at that man who had his dwelling in the tombs. They 
tried to tame him; but he snapped the chains, as Samson did the 
pillars. They tried to bind him; they tried to keep him clothed; but 



426 WHAT CHRIST IS TO TJS ? 

be tore his garments into shreds. There he was, a wild man and a 
terror to everybody. The children were afraid of him; and the 
women and men hearing his cries at night, dreaded to go near the 
spot. There he was, a slave of the devils. But Christ came to that 
part of the country. See how they tried to chain him, to bind him, 
to tame him; but they all failed. But Christ came, and with one 
word delivered him. One word, and those devils forsook him. And 
his countrymen, hearing of the incident, came out. They did not go 
out to see what Christ had been doing; but they came out to look 
for their swine. A good many men here in Chicago value swine 
more than they do the salvation of souls. Let pork go up or down, 
and see what a commotion there would be. But if there are souls 
to save here to-night, they would never trouble themselves. They 
came out to see the swine, and they found the wild man sitting at 
the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. When the man 
found himself delivered, he wanted to go with the Savior. That was 
gratitude. Christ had saved him, had redeemed him; he had deliv- 
ered him from the hand of the enemy. And this man cried: " let me 
follow you round the world; where you go I will go." But the Lord 
said: " You go home, and tell your friends what good things the 
Lord has done for you." And he started home. I would like to 
have been in that house when he came there. I can imagine how 
the children would look when they saw him, and say, "Father is 
coming." " Shut the door," the mother would cry; " look out; fasten 
the windows; bolt every door in the house." Many times, he very 
likely had come home and abused his family, and broken the chairs 
and tables, and turned the mother into the street, and alarmed all 
the neighbors. They see him now, coming down the street. Down 
he comes till he gets to the door, and then gently knocks. You 
don't hear a sound, as he stands there. At last he sees his wife at 
the window, and he says, "Mary!" " Why," she says, " why he speaks 
a,s he did when I first married him; I wonder if he has got well?" 
So she looks out and says, "John, is that you?" "Yes, Mary," he re- 
plies; " I'ts me. Don't be afraid any more; I'm well now." I see 
that mother; how she pulls back the bolts of that door, and looks at 
him. The first look is sufficient, and she springs into his arms, and 
clings about his neck. She takes him in and asks him a hundred 
questions — how it all happened — all about it. "Well, just take a 
-chair, and I'll tell you how I got cured." The children hang back, 
and look amazed. He says: " I was there in the tombs, you know, 
cutting myself with stones, and running about in my nakedness, 
when Jesus of Nazareth came that way. Mary, did you ever hear 
of him? He is the most wonderful man. I've never seen a man 
like him. He just ran in and told those devils to leave me, and they 
left me. When he had cured me, I wanted to follow him; but he 
told me to come home, and tell you all about it." The children, by- 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US ? 427 

and-by, gather about his knee; and the elder ones run to tell their 
playmates what wonderful things Jesus has done for their father. 

Ah, my friends, we have got a mighty deliverer. Don't care what 
affliction you have, he will deliver you from it. The Son of God, 
who cast out those devils, can deliver you from your besetting sin. 
A man told me last night, in speaking about drunkards, the trouble 
is that the passion for drink becomes a disease; and when it does 
there is no hope. That man didn't know the gospel, my friend. 
Christ is the physician who has never lost a case yet. We've got a 
great many fine physicians; how many of them can say: W I have 
never lost a case." Christ has never failed; and he has had some 
pretty hard cases. 

Just look at that woman, suffering for years from an issue of blood. 
Probably she had visited all the physicians round — had gone clear 
up to Damascus, and down to Egypt. Perhaps she had spent all her 
money in trying to get better, but instead had only grown worse. 
That's just the case with Christians, to-day. Instead of her coming 
to Christ, she went to the physicians around. I oan imagine one of 
her friends coming in and saying, "Have you over heard of Jesus of 
Nazareth?" "No." " Well, he is a great prophet. I have never 
seen him myself; but they tell me he is in Jerusalem, doing won- 
derful things. I heard of a man who was troubled with leprosy, and 
another with palsy; and they went to him, and in a moment were 
cured. They say, too, he gives sight to blind men." As her friend 
tells her these things, a ray of hope breaks upon the poor woman's 
soul; and she questions the friend further. "Yes, and I heard of 
another cure of a poor cripple who had been lame for years, so lame 
that he had to be carried to the prophet. When they got there, 
they found such a crowd that they had to cut a hole in the roof and 
let him down; and as soon as he saw him, he just touched him, and 
he was healed." "He must be a great physician. How much does 
he charge?" "Don't charge you anything." And this is the trou- 
ble with a great many people to-day. They think they have some- 
thing to do for the Lord — something to give him in return for the 
salvation he offers. " Do you mean to tell me he don't charge any- 
thing?" "Yes; I tell you, he cures all the people who come to him 
for nothing!" " I never heard of such a thing in my life. When- 
ever he comes here, I am going to see him." By-and-by, she hears 
that he is passing through her town, and she prepares to go. Her 
children probably come to her and urge her not to go. "Don't go 
to any more physicians. You've been running after too many, and 
they've only made you worse." But she gives them a deaf ear. She 
wants to be blessed. I don't know what they called the women's 
garments in those days; but we will come down to the present. She 
gets down her old shawl. The doctor took all her money, and she 
can't afford to buy a new one. When she gets to where he is, she 



428 WHAT CHRIST IS TO US ? 

finds a crowd around him, perhaps four or five times as many people 
as we have here. I can see that woman elbowing her way through 
the crowd, as she says to herself: " If I can only get near that man, 
I know by his look he can bless me." There she goes, pushing her 
way through the crowd of able-bodied men standing between her 
and the Savior. "Why don't you go away, or stand still?" they 
say to her; " there are plenty more besides you who want to get 
near him." But she keeps on; and by-and-by she is just about to 
touch him, when some one is thrust in between her and the Savior, 
and she is driven back. But she works her way on, and comes near 
enough again ; and I can see that thin, pale hand as it comes from 
under that shawl, and it creeps to his garment — lo! in a moment, she 
is well. Some one has said that he has got more medicine in this 
garment than there is in all the apothecaries' stores of the world. A 
mighty physician ! 

If you have a sick soul come up to him. There is no case too bad 
for him. I don't care if you have some sin to which you are a slave 
— he can heal you of it. Yes, my friends; he is a mighty physician, 
and can save all who come and seek his aid. I can imagine some 
of you say: "I am a good deal worse than any you have spoken of. 
I am dead to everything that is pure and holy. I come here night 
after night, and those remarks never touch me. Those sweet songs 
never thrill me. I am dead." Well, right here we find the story of 
one who was dead, Jairus' daughter. When he came to the house, 
they said he was too late. You and I have been too late, but Christ 
never. They forgot he was the resurrection and the life. When he 
went into that room with Peter and John, among the weeping 
mourners, he just said to that dead girl, "Damsel, I say unto thee, 
arise;" and she was awakened from the sleep of death. If there is 
a dead soul here to-night, he can save you. He said at the creation, 
"Let there be light;" and lo! the light appeared. If he commands 
your dead souls to live, they will surely live. Let your prayers be 
going up to God, that your dead souls may be filled with the light 
of his presence. He said to that woman's son, " Young man, arise." 
Why, he could raise men out of the stones in the street. There is 
no limit to the power of the Lord God of Israel. If there is a dead 
soul here, he can fill it with purity. Our Savior, our Redeemer, our 
Deliverer, our Physician, is able to do this. He can quicken dead 
souls; he can make them alive. 

You know, when he took the children of Israel through the Red 
Sea and into the wilderness, he became their way. You hear peo- 
ple sometimes saying: " If I become a Christian, I don't know what 
church I will join. I find the Roman Catholic church saying that 
they are the only true church — the only Apostolic church; and un- 
less I join it, they say I cannot enter heaven. Then the Baptists 
tell me, I cannot get into heaven unless I become immersed; the 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US ? 429 

Episcopalian church claims to be the only true church. So with the 
Presbyterians, and the Methodists; and I don't know really what 
way to take." Thank God, we need not be in darkness about that. 
He tells us, " I am the way." The greatest mistake of the present 
day is, the following of this creed and that one, this church and that 
church; and agreat many listen to the voice of the church, instead of the 
voice of God. The Catholic church, or any other, never saved a 
soul. The Son of God is the Savior of the world. The very name 
of Jesus can save his people from their sins. He is a real personal 
Savior; and if a man wants to become a Christian, let him put his 
eyes on that Savior, and he will be saved. You know that the chil- 
dren of Israel had a cloud going ahead of them. When the cloud 
moved they moved; when it stopped they stopped; and when it 
started they followed it. So, my friends, it is Jesus that is our way; 
and if we follow his footseps, we will be in the right church. Who 
could have led those chosen people through that wilderness better 
than God Almighty? He knew of all dangers and difficulties. 
When they wanted bread, he opened his hand and gave it them; 
when they wanted water, he commanded Moses to strike a rock, and, 
lo, the crystal stream gushed forth. Who could better lead them 
through the wilderness; and who could better lead us to heaven than 
Jesus? A great many people don't like the old way our fathers 
taught. Well, the people in the days of Jeremiah didn't like the 
old way; they hated it, and so he put them in slavery for seventy 
years. The good old way our fathers taught is better than our own 
way. 

People say this Bible was good enough for ancient days; but we 
have men of culture, of science, of literature now, and its value has 
decreased to the people of our day. Now, give me a better book, 
and I will throw it away. Has the world ever offered us a better 
book? These men want us to give up the Bible. What are you go- 
ing to give us in its place? Oh, how cruel infidelity is to tell us to 
give up all the hope we have — to throw away the only book which 
tells us the story of the resurrection. They try to tell us it is all a 
fiction, so that, when we lay our loved ones in the grave, we bid 
them farewell for time and eternity. Away with this terrible doc- 
trine. The Bible of our fathers and mothers is true; and the good 
old way is true. When man comes and tries to draw us from the old 
to the new way, it is the work of the devil. But men say we 
have outgrown this way. Why don't men outgrow the light of the 
sun? They shouldn't let the light of the sun come into their build- 
ings — should have gas; the sun is old, and gas is a new light. There 
is just as much sense in this as to take away the Bible. How much 
we owe the blessed Bible! Why, I don't think human life would be safe 
in this city, if it wasn't for it. Look at the history of the nations 
where the Bible has been trampled under foot. Only a few years 



430 WHAT CHRIST IS TO US ? 

ago, France and England were pretty nearly equal. England threw 
the Bible open to the world; and France tried to trample it. Now 
the English language is spoken around the world, and its prosperity 
has increased, while it stands foremost among nations. But look at 
France. It has gone down and down, with anarchy and revolution. 
Let us not forsake the old way. The Chief Shepherd has gone in 
through the gates, and tells us to come in through him. When I was 
in Dublin, I heard of a little boy who, while being taught in one of 
the mission schools, had found Christ. When he got home he tried 
to talk to his father and mother about his Redeemer. The little fel- 
low sickened and died; and when I was there, four years after the 
death of that boy, the father might have been seen night after night 
reading his Bible. If you had asked him what he was looking for, 
he would have told you he was looking for the way his little son had 
taken to get into heaven. He was trying to find the way. My 
friends, our elder brother has gone before us, and has taken his seat 
at the right hand of his God, and he won't leave us in darkness. 

I remember, a number of years ago, I went out of Chicago to try 
to preach. I went down to a little town, where was being held a 
Sunday-school convention. I was a perfect stranger in the place; 
and on my arrival, a man stepped up to me and asked me if my 
name was Moody. I told him it was, and he invited me to his house. 
When I arrived, he said he had to go to the convention, and asked 
me to excuse his wife, as she, not having a servant, had to attend to 
her household duties. He put me into the parlor, and told me to 
amuse myself as best I could till he came back. I sat there, but the 
room was dark and I could not read; and I got tired. So I thought 
I would try and get the children and play with them. I listened for 
some sound of childhood in the house, but could not hear a single 
evidence of the presence of little ones. When my friend came back 
I said, "Haven't you any children?" "Yes," he replied, "I have 
one, but she's in heaven; and I am glad she is there, Moody." "Are 
you glad that your child is dead?" I inquired. He went on to tell 
me how he had worshiped that child; how his whole life he had 
been bound up in her, to the neglect of his Savior. One day he had 
come home and found her dying. Upon her death, he accused God 
of being unjust. He saw some of his neighbors with their children 
around them. Why hadn't he taken some of them away? He was 
rebellious. After he came home from her funeral, he said: "All at 
once I thought I heard her little voice calling me, but the truth 
came to my heart that she was gone. Then I thought I heard her 
feet upon the stairs; but I knew she was lying in the grave. The 
thought of her loss made me almost mad. I threw myself on my 
bed, and wept bitterly. I fell asleep, and while I slept I had a dream ; 
but it almost seems to me like a vision. I thought I was going over 
a barren field, and I came to a river so dark and chill-looking that I 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US ? 431 

was going to turn away; when, at once, I saw, on the opposite bank, 
the most beautiful sight I ever looked at. I thought death and sor- 
row could never enter into that lovely region. Then I began to see 
beings all so happy looking, and among them T saw my little child. 
She waved her little angel hand at me and cried, 'Father, father, come 
this way.' I thought her voice sounded much sweeter than it did 
on earth. In my dream, I thought I went to the water and tried to 
cross it; but found it deep, and the current so rapid that I 
thought if I entered, it would carry me away from her for ever. I 
tried to find a boatman to take me over, but couldn't; and I walked 
up and down the river trying to find a crossing, and still she cried: 
'Come this way.' All at once, I heard a voice come rolling down: 
'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the 
Father but by me.' The voice awoke me from my sleep; and I 
knew it was my Savior calling me, and pointing the way for me to 
reach my darling child. I am now superintendent of a Sabbath- 
school; I have made many converts; my wife has been converted, 
and we will, through Jesus as the way, see one day our child." 

Am I not speaking to some father to-night, who has some loved 
one in yonder land? Am I not speaking to some mother, who has a 
little one in that happy land? And if you could but hear their voice, 
would they not say: "Come right this way?" Am I not speaking 
to some here who have representatives there? There's not a son 
here, if he could hear his mother's voice, but who would be told to 
come right that way. Thank God, we have all our Elder Brother 
there. Nearly one thousand nine hundred years have passed since 
he went there; but he is as constant to us now as he was when first 
he went there. Dear friends, as he calls us up to him, let us turn 
our backs to this world. Let us take Christ as our Redeemer, as our 
Deliverer, as our Physician, as our Way, as our Truth, and as our 
Light. May the blessing of heaven fall upon us all to-night; and 
may every man and woman here who is out of the kingdom, accept 
him and press into his dominions. 



CHRIST OUR KEEPER. 

You that were here last night may remember that I was talking 
about what Christ was to us. I did not finish that subject, and want 
to take it up again. I want to speak of Christ now as our keeper. 
Many people in the inquiry rooms complained that they could not 
hold out; they commenced all right, but could not hold out. Of 
course they could not, if they tried to do so of themselves. But, 
thank God, they had a keeper. A man, when asked what persua- 
sion he was, replied that he was of the same as St. Paul was, and he 
said: "I believe that he is able to keep that which is committed to him." 
That is a good denomination, and I recommend it to your attention. 
"What is this keeping; what does it consist of? If one of you had 
$100,000 in your pocket, and knew that fifteen or twenty thieves had 
their eyes on you, and wanted to rob you, what would you do? You 
would find a safe bank, and put it in there and feel safe. Now, 
every one of you has a precious soul, which the devil is striving to 
rob you of, and you cannot be safe until you have given it into 
Christ's keeping. The lion of the tribe of Judah is the only one that 
can safely keep us. 

What does the Word say? "I am the light of the world; if any 
man follow me he shall have the light of life." Why are so many 
of us in darkness? Because we will not follow the light — will not 
follow Christ. It does not matter who it is; a man of talent and in- 
tellect is no better than any one else, if he does not walk in the light, 
I remember, during the second year of the war, when things looked 
very bad for the country, they had a meeting, and every one spoke 
gloomily and hung their heads like so many bulrushes. One old 
man, though gray- bearded and with a face that literally shone — he 
was a man who looked like Moses — and he commenced to upbraid 
them that they did not look toward the Light; that they should re- 
member that if it was dark around them it was light higher up, where 
their Elder Brother was, and it only rested with them to climb higher. 
There is no darkness where Jesus is. Let us ask ourselves, let each 
one ask, " Am I a light in my family, among my companions ?" The 
Word said: "Ye are the light of the world." Are you, brethren? 
Just consider over it. Let us keep our loins girded and our lamps 
burning, or people will stumble over us. Oh, my friends, if the light 
in us be darkness, how great is that darkness. If we would light 
the world up, wn must borrow the light; we must take no glory to 




D. L. MOODY'S CHURCH. 

Comer Chicago Avenue and La Salle Street, Chicago, III. 



This edifice, recently completed, had more helping hands in its 
erection, than perhaps any other similar building in the world. After 
the great fire, which laid 'in ashes Moody's Illinois Street Mission, he 
at once called upon the Sunday-school scholars of Christendom to 
contribute each "a brick" only, in this good cause. The response 
was hearty and general. In came the money, and up went the new 
church structure, which stands to-day a noble monument of child- 
love and liberality.. It is 120x100 feet, with nine rooms below, and 
a large auditorium and galleries above seating 2,500 persons. The 
entire cost was about $100,000. The Society now has a membership 
of 400 and a Sunday-school of 1,000 scholars. 



CHRIST OUR KEEPER. 433 

ourselves, but merely reflect the light of Jesus Christ. The Bible 
does not pay, "Make your light shine before all men;" but, "Let 
your light shine." Let it shine. What a concession to them, such 
sinners as they were. God supplies us with it, for the asking. Oh, 
my friends, will you not ask for it? And when you once have it, 
hundreds of thousands of others will see it, and want it as well. Keep 
your lower lights burning, as Mr. Sankey has sung to you. 

Now I also like to think of Christ as a shepherd. The duty of a 
shepherd is to take care of his sheep. When a bear attacked David's 
flock, he seized his spear and slew the intruder; and your Shepherd 
will take as much care of you. Oh, what joy in the news to those 
who can say, " The Lord is my shepherd." Think of the shepherd 
carefully counting his sheep at the close of the day; one is missing; 
what does he do? Is he content with his ninety and nine, to leave 
the missing? No; he safely houses the others, and then goes in search 
of the one which is missing. Can you not see him hunting for the 
lost one; going over mountains and rocks and crossing brooks, and 
what joy there is when the wanderer is found. Oh what a shepherd 
is that. He wants to be a shepherd to all you here to-night. Will 
you not accept him? The man who saw a shepherd calling his sheep 
by name, wondered if he could tell one from another, they all looked 
so much alike. When he inquired on the matter, he was pointed to 
several little defects on the sheep; one had a black spot, another a 
torn ear, another a bad toe; one was cross-eyed, and so on. You see 
the shepherd knew his sheep by their defects; and I think it is so 
with our heavenly Father. He knows us all by our defects; and 
yet with all our faults He loves us. You may ask, If he loves me, 
why does he afflict me? Well, now, I once saw a drove of sheep 
looking very tired and weary, being hurried on by a shepherd and 
his dogs; and when they wanted to stop and drink at a brook by the 
wayside they were not allowed to, but driven on. I felt that it was 
very unkind of that shepherd; but by-and-by they stopped before a 
pair of handsome gates, and the flecks were turned into beautiful 
green pastures, with a clear stream running through them. Then I 
knew that I had been hasty; that the shepherd had not been unkind, 
but kind, in not allowing his sheep to drink from that muddy stream 
in the road, for he had been saving them and taking them on to 
something better. So with our heavenly Father, our Shepherd; He 
is compelled to afflict us sometimes, while leading us into green pas- 
tures. Oh, brethren, let us give thanks that we have such a good 
Shepherd to guide and protect us; and though these afflictions may 
come upon us and seem hard at the time, let us remember his great 
mercy and loving kindness, and bow and kiss the rod. Let us look 
to God for his blessing. 



28 



.r 



(• 



THE GOSPEL GIFT. 

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture: and he that believeth and is baptized, shall be aaved; but he that believeth not shall 
be damned. " Mark 16 : 15, 16. 

You'll find my text to-night in the 16th chapter of Mark, 15th and 
16th verses: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature; and he that believeth and 
is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned." I like these kinds of texts — they've got such a sweep in 
them; they take in everybody. You know the great difficulty is to 
make all people believe that you are preaching to them individually. 
A text like this to-night takes in everyone. It says: "Go ye into 
all the world, and preach th^ gospel to every creature." Don't leave 
out one. When he delivered this command to his followers, he was 
on his way home — to the land where all knew him, and all loved him. 
Gethsemane, with its hours of agony and blood, was over. He could 
now look beyond it. He had been brought before Pilate and also 
before the Sanhedrim, and had been tried and condemned. All that 
was past. Calvary, with all its horrors, was over, and the empty 
sepulchre lay behind him; and he stood with a little body of believ- 
ers around him, with a little handful of men, who had stood by him 
in his conflict with the Pharisees and priests; and now he was giv- 
ing them his parting words — a mission, as it were. It was the Cap- 
tain of our salvation, telling his warriors what to do after he was 
gone. In a few minutes he was to be caught up into heaven. They 
were the words of the resurrected man — a man who had gone down 
and sounded the depths of the grave; a man who had gone down 
and conquered the lion of hell, and now stood on resurrection ground 
as he said: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; 
but he that believeth not shall be damned." 

Now, I want to ask you the question: Do you believe he would 
send those men out to preach the gospel to every creature unless he 
wanted every creature to be saved? Do you believe he would tell 
them to preach it to people, without giving people the power to ac- 
cept it? Do you believe that the God of heaven is mocking men by 
offering them this gospel; and not giving them the power to take 
hold of it? Do you believe he will not give men power to accept 
this salvation, as a gift. Man might do that; but God never mocks 
men. And when he says, " Preach the gospel to every creature;" 1 
434 



THE GOSPEL GIFT. 435 

every creature can be saved, if he will. For 1800 years, the heralds 
of the Cross have been crossing seas and fording rivers, have been 
enduring hardships and persecution, in testifying to the people these 
glorious truths of the gospel. Their spirits have gone up amid flames 
and tortures; and they have died in prison, because of their preaching 
of the gospel. To-day, we live in an open land, where the gospel is 
as free as the air. Remember that it cost all God had to give it; and 
every poor, miserable sinner on the earth can be savedf or nothing. It 
is free to all ; but don't forget that it cost God the Son of his love, the 
Son of his bosom, to redeem a rebellious world. If you are saved, 
bear this in mind, that it is a free gift; but it cost God everything. 
Its reading is that whosoever believes it, within the sound of my 
voice, can have it. Some people come to me and say: "Mr. Moody, 
don't you feel a great responsibility when you come before an au- 
dience like this; don't you feel a great weight upon your shoulders?" 
"Well," I say, "no; I cannot convert men; I can only proclaim the 
gospel." Not only that, but I tell you that God gives me a mission 
to preach it to every creature — I don't care to what nationality you 
belong, what has been your early training, how far you are sunk in 
iniquity — I don't care who or what you may be; I tell you to-night 
you have either to receive the gospel and be saved, or reject it and 
be damned. There's the scripture. I was talking to a man this 
morning, and I asked him, " Would you like to become a Christian?" 
"No, sir." "You would rather be damned, eh?" "Well, I wpuldn't 
exactly like to put it that way," he replied. " Well," I said, " that's 
the way you're putting it." My friends, let's put it in plain English, 
so that we can get hold of it. Are there any here to-night who are 
willing to say coolly and calmly and deliberately: "I don't want 
salvation as a gift; I don't want to be saved"? Would you rather 
go down fighting God and the Son of his love, than accept them and 
be saved? Now, the invitation is to every one. " Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It is so hard to 
make people believe it is for them — to make them take it right home. 
Mr. Spurgeon told me that he once went to his orphanage on a visit. 
He said that a great many of those orphans had uncles and aunts, 
and cousins and sisters, who brought them Christinas presents. 
While he was on this visit a little boy came to him and said, "Mr. 
Spurgeon, will you let me talk to you a minute?" "Yes, my boy; 
wnat is ii you want?" " Weil," said he, " Mr. Spurgeon, suppose 
you were a poor little boy and had no aunts or cousins, or sisters or 
brothers, and had nobody to bring you any presents; and you saw 
others who had uncles and aunts, and cousins and sisters, and who 
brought presents to them, wouldn't you feel bad?" "Why, yes," 
replied Mr. Spurgeon. "That's me; that's me," said the boy. He 
got Mr. Spurgeon right down to the point; and so, if men would just 
say: "This gospel is for us; I believe it is for myself," there would 



436 THE GOSPEL GIFT. 

be hope for them being saved. New, I don't see how you can get 
away from this text to-night; it is put so plain. Don't reject it any 
longer, ray friends. Every time you hear it, your heart is getting 
harder and harder; and you will, the longer you keep away, have 
more difficulty in bending your will to its acceptance. I tell you, 
you will have to do either of two things to-night — reject it, or re- 
ceive it. I remember a man, upon hearing this, getting up in a fu- 
rious passion, and stamping up and down. " The idea of anyone 
saying we've got to receive it or reject it." He didn't like the plain 
statement. Well, my friends, can we tell you anything else? The 
audience must be divided into two classes; those who will receive it, 
and those who will reject it. It is for you to decide on which side 
you will be. As many as receive it, he will give power to become 
the sons and daughters of men. 

The question is, What are you going to do with God's gift to- 
night? The question comes home to every one within this building. 
What are you going to do with the gift of God's love? You must 
either trample him under your feet, and make light of what he has 
offered us; or you must receive him as our way, our truth, our light. 
I was down at the Ohio Penitentiary a few years ago, and the chap- 
lain said to me: "I want to tell you a scene that occurred some time 
ago. Our Commissioner went to the Governor of the State, and 
asked him if he wouldn't pardon out five men at the end of six 
months who stood highest on the list for good behavior. The Gov- 
ernor consented, and the record was to be kept secret; the men were 
not to know anything about. The six months rolled away, and the 
prisoners were all brought up — 1,100 of thera; and the President of 
the commission came up and said: * I hold in my hand pardons for 
five men.' I never witnessed anything like it. Every man held his 
breath; and you could almost hear the throbbing of every man's 
heart. ' Pardons for five men!' and the Commissioner went on to 
tell the men how they had got these pardons — how the Governor 
had given them; but the chaplain said the suspense was so great 
that he told the Commissioner to read the names first, and tell the 
reason afterward. The first name was called — 'Reuben Johnson' — 
and he held out the pardon; but not a man moved. He looked all 
around, expecting to see a man spring to his feet at once; but no 
one moved. The Commissioner turned to the officer of the prison, 
and inquired: 'Are all the convicts here?' 4 Yes,' was the reply. 
'Reuben Johnson, come forward and get your pardon; you are no 
longer a criminal.' Still no one moved. The real Reuben Johnson 
was looking all the time behind him, and around him, to see where 
Reuben was. The chaplain saw him standing right in front of the 
Commissioner, and beckoned to him; but he only turned and looked 
around him, thinking that the chaplain must mean some other Reu- 
ben. A second time he beckoned to Reuben, and called to him; and 



THE GOSPEL GIFT. 437 

a second time the man looked around. At last the chaplain said to 
him: ' You are the Reuben.' He had been there for nineteen years, 
having been placed there for life: and he could not conceive it 
would be for him. At last it began to dawn upon him; and he took 
the pardon from the Commissioner's hand, saw his name attached to 
it, and wept like a child." This is the way that men make out par- 
dons for men; but, thank God! we have not to come to-night and 
say we have pardons for only five men — for those who behaved 
themselves. We have assurance of pardon for every man. ' Who- 
soever will, let him drink of the water of life." It is offered to every 
thief and harlot, to every gambler and drunkard; salvation for every 
one. Salvation is offered to every man, woman, and child. 

I can just imagine the scene, as those warriors of the cross stood 
around Christ, the tears trickling down the cheeks of Peter as he 
says, upon hearing the command: " You don't mean, when you 
command us to preach to every creature, that we are to tell the gos- 
pel to those unbelievers — those murderers in Jerusalem?" "Yes; 
go first to those Jerusalem sinners." And at that scene of Pente- 
cost, I can imagine a man coming up and saying: "Peter, I am the man 
that spat in his face; you don't mean to say I can be saved?" "Yes, 
every one of you; for he told me before he left, preach the gospel to 
every creature." Another man comes up and says: " Peter, I am 
he who made the crown of thorns; do you think I can be saved?" 
"Yes; he will give you in return the crown of life." "I am the 
man," says another, '• who drove the spear into his side." " Yes, I 
know it," replies Peter; " for I saw you doing it; but even you can 
be saved." My friends, if those Jerusalem sinners can be saved, 
there is hope for the sinners of Chicago. One man, in drawing that 
scene, said he could fancy Peter saying: "Surely, you don't mean 
that we are to go back to Jerusalem and preach to those men who 
sacrificed you — who spat in your face?" "Yes, hunt them up; hunt 
up the man who drove the spear into my side, and tell him in its 
place I will put a sceptre in his hand, if he will accept salvation 
from me; unto that man who made a crown of thorns for my head, 
say I will give a crown of glory; tell them there is forgiveness for 
all." Oh, my friend, the gospel is for every creature. Take salva- 
tion as a gift. It is for you. God says plainly, he does not will any 
one to death, he wants all to be saved. 

When 1 was East, a few years ago, Mr. Geo. H. Stuart told me of 
a scene that occurred in a Pennsylvania prison when Governor 
Pollock, a Christian man, was Governor of that State. A man was 
tried for murder, and the judge had pronounced sentence upon him. 
His friends had tried every means in their power to procure his par- 
don. They had sent deputation after deputation to the Governor; 
but he had told them all that the law must take its course. When 
they began to give up all hope, the Governor went down to the 



438 CONVERSION OF SAUL. 

prison and asked the sheriff to take him to the cell of the condemned 
man. The Governor was conducted into the presence of the crimi- 
nal; and he sat down by the side of his bed and began to talk to 
him kindly — spoke to him of Christ and heaven, and showed him 
that, although he was condemned to die on the morrow by earthly 
judges, he would receive eternal life from the Divine Judge, if he 
would accept salvation. He explained the plan of salvation; and 
when he left him, he committed him to God. When he was gone 
the sheriff was called to the cell by the condemned man. " Who 
was that man," asked the criminal, " who was in here and talked so 
kindly to me?" "Why," said the sheriff, "that was Governor Pol- 
lock." "Was that Governor Pollock? O sheriff, why didn't you 
tell me who it was? If I had known that was him, I wouldn't have 
let him go out till he had given me pardon. The Governor has been 
here — in my cell — and I didn't know it;" and the man wrung his 
hands, and wept bitterly. My friends, there is one greater than a 
Governor here to-night, to tell you he is here. You haven't got to 
go to heaven to bring him down. He is here now, waiting for 
your acceptance. You can be saved for time and eternity, if you 
will. My friends, what will you do? Accept him and receive the 
crown of glory; or reject him, and be lost? It rests with you to 
decide. 



CONVERSION OF SAUL. 

** Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me." Acts 9:4. • 

You who were here last night know that I was speaking on the 
Prodigal Son. To-night, I want to take up another man for my text 
— the one we have been speaking about; a much harder case than 
the prodigal, because he didn't think he needed a Savior. You 
needn't have talked a great while to that prodigal before you could 
have convinced him that he needed a Savior. It is easy to reach a 
prodigal's heart, when he reaches the end of his rope. This man 
stood high in the estimation of the people; he stood, as it were, at 
the top round of the ladder, while the prodigal was at the bottom. 
This man was full of self- righteousness; and if you had tried to 
pick out a man in Jerusalem as a hopeless case, so far as accepting 
Jesus of Nazareth as a Savior, you would have picked out Saul. He 



CONVERSION OF SAUL. 439 

was the most utterly hopeless case you could have found. I would 
sooner have thought of the conversion of Pilate than of this man. 
When they were putting to death the martyrs to the Cross, he had 
cheered on the murderers; but, in spite of all this, we find the Son 
of God coming and knocking at his heart, and it was not long before 
he received him as his Savior. You can see him as he goes to the 
chief priests of Jerusalem, getting the necessary documents that he 
might go to Damascus, that he might go to the synagogue there and 
get all who were calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ cast into prison. 
He was going to stamp out the teachers of the new gospel. One 
thing that made him so mad probably was, that when the disciples 
were turned out of Jerusalem, instead of stopping they went all 
around and preached. Phillip went down to Samaria, and probably 
there was a great revival there; and the news had come from Da- 
mascus that the preachers had actually reached that place. This 
man was full of zeal, and full of religion. He was a religious man; 
and no doubt he could say a prayer as long as any one in Jerusalem. 
He had kept the laws faithfully, and been an honest and upright 
man. The people then would never have dreamed of him requiring 
a Savior. A good many people right here in Chicago would say: 
"He is good enough. To be sure, he don't believe in Jesus Christ; 
but he is a good man." And there's a good many in Chicago who 
don't believe in him. They think if they pay their debts, and live a 
moral life, they don't need to be converted. They don't want to 
call upon him; they want to get Christ and all his teaching out of 
the way, as this man did. That's what they have been trying to do, 
for eighteen centuries. He just wanted to stamp it out, with one 
swoop. So he got the necessary papers, and away he went down to 
Damascus. Suppose, as he rode out of the gate of Jerusalem on 
his mission, any one had said to him, " You are going down to prose- 
cute the preachers of Christ; but you'll come back a preacher your- 
self." If a man said this, he would not have had his head on his 
shoulders five minutes. He would have said, "I hate him; I abhor 
him ; that's me." He wants to get Christ and his disciples out of 
the way. He was no stranger to Christ; he knew his working; for v 
as Paul said to Agrippa, "This thing was not done in a corner." He 
knew all about Christ's death. Probably he was acquainted with 
Nicodemus, and the members of the Sanhedrim who were against 
Christ. Perhaps he was acquainted with Christ's disciples, and with 
all their good deeds. Yet he had a perfect hatred for the gospel 
and its teachers; and he was going down to Damascus, just to have 
all those Christians put in prison. You see him as he rides out of 
Jerusalem with his brilliant escort; and away he goes through Sa- 
maria, where Philip was. He wouldn't speak to a Samaritan, how- 
ever. The Jews detested the Samaritans. The idea of him speaking 
to an adulterous Samaritan would have been ridiculous to him. So 



440 CONVERSION OF SAUL. 

he rode proudly through the nation, with his head raised, breathing 
slaughter to the children of God. Damascus was about one hundred 
and thirty-eight miles from Jerusalem; but we are not told how long 
he took for that journey. Little did he think that nineteen hundred 
years after, in this country, then wild, there would be thousands of 
people gathered just to hear the story of his journey down to Da- 
mascus. He has arrived at the gates of the city, and he has not got 
cooled off, as we say. He is still breathing revenge. See him as he 
stands before that beautiful city. Some one has said that this is the 
most beautiful city in the world; and we are told that when Mo- 
hammed came to it he turned his head away from it, lest the beauty 
of it would take him from his God. So this young man comes to 
the city; and he tells us the hour when he reached it. He never 
forgets the hour, for it was then that Christ met him. He says he 
" saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the 
sun;" he saw the light of heaven, and a glimpse of that light struck 
him to the ground. And when God speaks to the sinner, that's 
where he ought to be. Every man ought to fall on his face. From 
that light a voice called, "Saul, Saul." Yes, the Son of God knows 
his name. Sinner, God knows your name. He knows all about you. 
He knows the street you live in, the number of your house, because 
he told Ananias where Saul lived when he went there. " Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me?" How the words must have gone down 
to his soul. He stopped; the words went to his heart. And I find 
preaching is not attended with much good till men just stop and 
take the gospel to themselves. May every sinner here to-night hear 
Christ calling him by name. We want a personal Christ. Well, 
when the question was put to him, "Why persecutest thou me?" 
could he give a reason? Is there any sinner can give a reason for 
persecuting Christ? Oh, why do you persecute Christ? I can 
imagine some of you saying: "I never persecuted Christ. I 
have a great many sins; I swear sometimes, sometimes drink; 
but I always speak respectfully of Christ." Do you? Do you 
never speak disrespectfully of his disciples and God's chil- 
dren? Remember, if you speak disrespectfully of them, you 
treat him with disrespect. When Christ asked him this question, 
" Why persecutest thou me?" He might have added: " I lived on 
the earth thirty years, and I never did you any hurt: I never did you 
any injury; I never even injured your friends: I came into the world 
to bless you. Why persecutest thou me?" Why, my friends, all 
the blessings you ever got came from him, why can't you live for 
him; why do you go on hating Christ? Is there a man in this as- 
sembly who can give a reason why he don't love him? Is there any 
reason to be found, in the wide wide world, why men and women 
should not love Christ? 
I remember hearing of a Sabbath-school teacher who had led every 



CONVERSION OF SAUL. 441 

one of her children to Christ. She was a faithful teacher. Then 
she tried to get her children to go out and bring other children into 
the school. One day, one of them came and said she had been try- 
sng to get the children of a family to come to the school; but the 
father was an infidel, and he wouldn't allow it. "What is an infi- 
del?" asked the child. She had never heard of an infidel before. 
The teacher went on to tell her what an infidel was; and she was 
perfectly shocked. A few mornings after the girl happened to be 
going past a postoffice on her way to school; and she saw the infi- 
del father coming out. She went up to him and said, "Why don't 
you love Jesus?" If it had been a man who had said that to him, 
probably he would have knocked him down. He looked at her, and 
walked on. A second time she put the question "Why don't you 
love Jesus?" He put out his hand and put her gently away from 
him, when, on looking down, he saw her tears. "Please, sir, tell me 
why you don't love Jesus?" He pushed her aside, and away he 
went. When he got to his office, he couldn't get this question out 
of his mind. All the letters seemed to read, "Why don't you love 
Jesus?" All the men in his place of business seemed to say, "Why 
don't you love Jesus?" When he tried to write, his pen seemed to 
shape the word, "Why don't you love Jesus?" He couldn't rest, 
and on the street he went to mingle with the business men; but he 
seemed to hear a voice continually asking him, "Why don't you 
love Jesus?" He thought, when night came and he got home with 
his family, he would forget it; but he couldn't. He complained that 
he wasn't well, and went to bed. But when he laid his head on the 
pillow that voice kept whispering, "Why don't you love Jesus?" 
He couldn't sleep. By and by, about midnight, he got up and said: 
"I will get a Bible, and find where Christ contradicts himself; and 
then I'll have a reason." And he turned to the book of John. My 
friends, if you want a reason for not loving Christ, don't turn to John. 
He knew him too long. I don't believe a man can read the gospel 
of John without being turned to Christ. Well, he read it through,, 
and found no reason why he shouldn't love him; but he found many 
reasons why he should. He read this book, and before morning he 
was on his knees; and the question put by that little child led to 
his conversion. My friends, if you make up your minds not to go to 
sleep to-night without a good reason why you should a't love him, 
you will love him. There is no reason, as I said before, in the wide, 
wide world, why you shouldn't love Christ. Go down to the dark 
corners of the earth — even to hell; and ask them there if they can 
give you any reason for not loving Christ. My friends, the lost 
spirits can give you no reason. Neither in earth, nor in hell, can any 
reason be found for not loving him. To-night, but this question to 
yourselves, " What keeps rne from coming to Christ?" " Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me?" Oh, may the question go down to our 



442 CONVERSION OF SAUL. 

hearts to-night, and may you not sleep till you can look up and say: 
" Christ is my Savior; he is my Redeemer;" and until you can see 
your title clear, for one of those mansions he has gone to prepare. 

"When this question was put to Saul, "Why persecutest thou me?" 
He supplemented it by saying, " It is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks." The thought I want to call attention to is this, "It is 
hard for thee to kick against the pricks." You and I would not have 
had any compassion upon Saul, if we had been in Christ's place. We 
would have said, the hardship is upon the poor Christians in Damas- 
cus. But the Lord saw differently. He said, " It is hard for thee to 
kick against the pricks." In those days, when they didn't drive 
their camels with whips, they had a piece of stick with a sharp piece 
of steel at the end called a prick, and it was applied to the animal. 
A lady said to me some time ago, "It is easy to sin, but it is hard to 
do right;" or, in other words, it is hard to serve God, and easy to 
serve the devil. I think you will find hundreds of people in Chicago 
who think this way. There is not a lie which ever came from hell so 
deceptive as this. It is as false as any lie the devil ever uttered. 
We want to drive that lie back where it came from. My friends, it 
is not true, God is not a hard master; he is a lenient one. What did 
Christ say to Saul? "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." 
There is a period at which the sinner arrives when he sees the truth 
of this. How many men have said to me, "Mr. Moody, the way of 
the transgressor is pretty hard." It is a common expression. I have 
been with men in court and in prison, who have said this. It is not 
a, hard thing to serve God, if you are born of God; but, my friends, 
it is a hard thing to serve Satan. The way of sin grows darker and 
harder to a man, the longer he is in it. Before I came down, I took 
up a paper, and the first thing I saw was an account of a Boston man 
who had forged, and it closed by saying his path was a hard, flinty 
one. 

Now, take up any class of sinners in Chicago. We've represent- 
atives here to-night. Take the harlot. Do you think her life is an 
easy one? It is very short. The average one is seven years. Just 
look at her as she comes up to the city from the home where she has 
left sisters and a mother, as pure as the morning air. She came down 
to the city, and is now in a low brothel. Sometimes her mind goes 
back to the pure home where her mother prayed for her; where she 
used to lay down her head on that mother's bosom, and she used to 
press the sweet face of her child to her own. She remembers when 
she went to Sunday-school; remembers when her mother tried to 
teach her to serve God, and now she is an exile. She don't want to 
go home. She is full of shame. She looks into the future, and sees 
darkness before her. In a few short years, she dies the death of a 
harlot; and she is laid away in an unknown grave. All the flattery 
of her lovers, is hollow and false. Is her life a happy one? Ask a 



CONVEKfelON OF SAUL. 443 

harlot to-night, and she will tell you the way of the transgressor is 
hard; and then ask the pure and virtuous if Christ is a hard master. 

Go ask that drunkard if his way is an easy one. Why, there was 
a man whom I knew who was an inveterate drinker. He had a wife 
and children. He thought he could stop whenever he felt inclined; 
but he went the ways of most moderate drinkers. I had not been 
gone more than three years; and when I returned, I found that the 
mother had gone down to her grave with a broken heart, and that 
man was the murderer of the wife of his bosom. Those children 
have all been taken away from him; and he is now walking up and 
down those streets homeless. But four years ago he had a beautiful 
and a happy home, with his wife and children around him. They are 
gone; probably he will never see them again. Perhaps he has come 
in here to-night. If he has, I ask him: Is not the way of the trans- 
gressor hard? Is it not hard to fight against Him? Do not go 
against your Maker. Don't believe the devil's lies; don't think God 
is a hard master. If you persist in wrong-doing, you will find out 
the truth of what was said to Saul, " It is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks." 

Look again at that rum-seller. When we talk to him he laughs 
at us. He tells us there is no hell, no future; there is no retribution. 
I've got one man in my mind now, who ruined nearly all the sons in 
his neighborhood. Mothers and fathers went to him, and begged 
him not to sell their children liquor. He told them it was his busi- 
ness to sell liquor; and he was going to sell liquor to every one who 
came. The place was a blot upon the place, as dark as hell. But 
that man had a father's heart. He had a son; he didn't worship God, 
but he worshiped that boy. He didn't remember that whatsoever 
a man soweth so shall he reap. My friends, they generally reap what 
they sow. It may not come soon; but the retribution will come. If 
you ruin other men's sons, some other man will ruin yours. Bear in 
mind, God is a God of equity; God is a God of justice. He is not 
going to allow you to ruin men, and then escape yourself. If we go 
against his laws, we suffer. Time rolled on, and that young man 
became a slave to drink; and his life became such a burden to him 
that he put a revolver to his head and blew his brains out. The father 
lived a lew years; but his life was as bitter as gall, and then he went 
down to his grave in sorrow. Ah, my friends, " It is hard to kick 
against the pricks." You may go out of the Tabernacle laughing at 
everything I say; but it is true as the God in heaven, that the day of 
retribution will come. It is only a question of time. 

See that false-hearted libertine! The day is coming when he will 
reap what he is sowing. He may not be called to reap it in this 
world; but he will be brought up before the bar of heaven, and there 
the harvest will be seen. These men, who have got smooth, oily 
tongues, go into society and play their part, and still walk around 



444 CONVERSION OF SAUL. 

If a poor woman falls, she's ruled out; but these false-hearted lib- 
ertines still go up and down the* world. The eyes of justice may 
not find them out. They think themselves secure; but they are de- 
ceiving themselves. By and by, the God of heaven will summon 
them to give an account. They say then that God will not punish 
them; but the decree of heaven has gone forth, "Whatsoever a man 
soweth so shall he reap." 

One week ago, I preached on the text, " Christ came to heal the 
broken-hearted." I told you, just before I came down, that I had 
received a letter from a broken-hearted wife. Her husband one 
night came in, to her surprise, and said he was a defaulter and must 
fly; and he went, she knew not where. He forsook her and two 
children. It was a pitiful letter; and the wail of that poor woman 
seems to ring in my ears yet. That night, up in that gallery, was a 
man whose heart began to beat when I told the story, thinking it 
was him I meant, till I came to the two children. When I got 
through, I found that he had taken money which did not belong to 
him, intending to replace it; but he failed to do so, and fled. He 
Said: " I have a beautiful wife and three children; but I had to leave 
her and come to Chicago, where I have been hiding. The Governor 
of the State has offered a reward for me." My friends, a week ago 
this poor fellow found out the truth of this text. He was in great 
agony. He felt as if he could not carry the burden; and he said: 
" Mr. Moody, I want you to pray with me. Ask God for mercy for 
me." And down we went on our knees. I don't know if ever I felt 
so deeply for a man in my life. He asked me if I thought he should 
go back. I told him to ask the Lord; and we prayed over it. That 
was Sunday evening, and I asked him to meet me on the Monday even- 
ing. He told me how hard it was to go back to that town and give 
himself up, and disgrace his wife and children. They would give 
him ten years. Monday came, and he met me, and said: "Mr. 
Moody, I have prayed over this matter, and I think that Christ has 
forgiven me; but I don't belong to myself. I must go back and give 
myself up. I expect to be sent to the penitentiary; but I must go." 
He asked me to pray for his wife and children, and he went off. He 
will be there now, in the hands of justice. My friends, don't say 
the way of the transgressor is not hard. It is hard to fight against 
sin; but it is a thousand times harder to die without hope. Will you 
not just accept Christ? Take Christ as your hope, your life, your 
truth. 



NAAMAN, THE LEPER. 

" Go and wash in Jordan seven times." 2 Kings 5: 10. 

We have for our subject this evening, " Naaman." We are told 
in this chapter that we have just read, that he was a great man; but 
he was a leper, and that spoiled him. He was a successful man, yet 
he was a leper; he was a very valiant man, but he was a leper; he 
was a very noble man, yet he was a leper. What a blight that must 
have cast on his path. It must have haunted him day and night. 
He was a leper, and there was no physician in Syria that could help 
him. It was an incurable disease; and I suppose he thought he 
would have to go down to the grave with that loathsome disease. 
We read that several companies had gone down to the land of Israel, 
and brought down to Syria some poor captives; and among them 
was a little girl, who was sent to wait on Naaman's wife. I can im- 
agine that little maid had a praying mother, who had taught her to 
love the Lord; and when she got down there she was not ashamed to 
own her religion — she was not ashamed to acknowledge her Lord. 
One day, while waiting on her mistress, I can think of her saying: 
"Would to God your husband was in Samaria. There is a prophet 
there who would cure him." I can imagine her looking at the girl, 
when she said this: "What! a man in Israel can cure my husband; 
you must be dreaming. Did you ever hear of a man being cured of 
the leprosy?" " No," the girl might have said; " but that is nothing. 
Why, the prophet in Samaria has cured many persons worse than 
your husband." And perhaps she told her about the poor woman 
who had such an increase of oil, and how her two boys were saved 
from slavery by the prophet; and how he had raised the child of that 
poor woman from the dead; and, "if the prophet can raise anybody 
from the dead, he can cure your husband." This girl must have had 
something about her to make those people listen to her; she must 
have shown her religion in her life; her life must have been consist- 
ent with her religion, to make them believe her. We read that 
Naaman had faith in her word; and he goes to the king and tells 
him what he intends to do. And the king says: "I will tell you 
what I will do. I will give you letters to the king of Israel; and, of 
course, if any cure is to be effected, the king will know how to ob- 
tain it." Like a ^reat many men now-a-days, they think, if there 
is anything to be got, it is to be got from the king and not from his 
subjects. And so you see this man startng out to the king of Israel, 
with all his letters and a very long purse. I cannot find just now 
445 



446 NAAMAN, THE LEPER. 

how much it was; but it must have been something like $500,000. 
The sum was a very large one, likely. He was going to be liberal; 
he was not going to be small. Well, he got all his money and let- 
ters together, and started. There was no small stir as Naaman swept 
through the gates of Syria that day, with his escort. He reached 
Samaria, and sends a messenger to the king announcing his arrival. 
The messenger delivers the letter to the king; and the first thing he 
does is to open the letter, and begin to read it. I can see his brow 
knit, as he goes on. "What is this?" he exclaims. "What does 
this mean? This man means war. This Assyrian king means to 
have a war with me. Who ever heard of such a thing as a man 
cured of leprosy?" and he rent his mantle. 

Everyone knew something was wrong when the king rent his man- 
tle; and the news spread through the streets that they were on the 
eve of a war. The air was filled with war; everybody was talking 
about it. No doubt the news had gone abroad that the great gene- 
ral of Assyria was in the city, and he was the cause of the rumors; 
and by and by it reached the prophet Elisha that he (the king) had 
rent his mantle, and he wanted to know the cause. When he had 
heard what it was, he just told the king to send Naaman to him. 
Now you see the major-general riding up in grand style to the 
prophet's house. He probably lived in a small and obscure dwell- 
ing. Perhaps Naaman thought he was doing Elisha a great favor 
by calling on him. He had an idea that he was honoring this man, 
who had no influence or position. So he rides up. A messenger is 
sent in to announce Major-General Naaman, of Damascus. But the 
prophet doesn't even see him. He simply tells the servant to say to 
him, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times." When the messenger 
comes to Naaman and tells him this, he is as mad as anything. He 
considers it a reflection upon him — as if he hadn't kept his person 
clean. " Does the man mean to insinuate that I haven't kept my 
body clean — can't I wash myself in the waters of Damascus? We've 
much better water than they have here. Why, if we had the Jordan 
in Syria we'd look upon it as a ditch. The idea — wash in that con- 
temptible river." He's full of rage as he can be; and he said, "Be- 
hold, I thought." That's the way with sinners; they always say, 
they thought. In this expression, we can see he had thought of some 
plan, had marked out a way for the Lord to heal him. That is the 
way with nearly every man and woman in Chicago. They've got a 
plan drawn out; and because God does not come and save them ac- 
cording to their plan, they don't take him. Keep this in mind: " My 
ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts." If you 
look for him to come in that direction, he will come the other way. 
"My ways are not your ways." He thought — My friends, no man 
gets into the kingdom of God till he gives up his thoughts. God 
never saved a man till he gave up his own thoughts, and takes up 



NAAMAN, THE LEPER. 447 

God's. Yes, Naaman thought that the moment the prophet knew 
he was outside he would come out and bow and scrape, and say he 
was glad to see such a great and honorable man from Syria. In- 
stead of that he merely sent out a messenger to tell him to go and 
wash in Jordan seven times. 

When we were in Glasgow, we had an employer converted, and 
he wanted to get a man in his employ to come to our meetings, but 
he wouldn't come. If he was going to be converted, he wouldn't be 
converted by those meetings. You know when a Scotchman gets 
an idea into his head, he is the most stubborn man you can find. 
He was determined not to be converted by Moody and Sankey. 
Like a good many here, they say: "If I am going to be converted, I 
ain't going to be converted down in that old tabernacle." The em- 
ployer talked and talked to this man, but he couldn't get him to 
come. Well, we left Glasgow, and got away up to the north of Scot- 
land — in Inverness; and he sent this man up there on business, 
thinking he might be induced to go into the meetings. One night 
we were singing "On the banks of that beautiful river," and he 
happened to be passing, and wondered where the sweet sounds were 
coming from. He came up finally; and I happened to be preaching 
that night on the very text, "I thought." He listened, and soon did 
not know exactly where he was. He was convicted; he was con- 
verted, and became a Christian. "I thought," how many people 
have said, "I'd never be converted by these meetings;" "I'll never 
be converted in the Baptist Church;" "I'll never be converted in 
the Presbyterian Church." A man makes up his mind not to go 
there, and he goes. A man must yield his own way to that of God. 
Now, you can see all along that Naaman's thoughts were altogether 
different from those of God. He was going to get the grace of God 
by showing favors; and a good many men now think, they can buy 
their way into the kingdom of God. My friends, we cannot buy 
the favor of heaven with money. If you get a seat in the kingdom 
of heaven, you have to accept salvation as a gift. 

Then another thing he thought. He thought he could get what 
he wanted by taking letters to the king, not the prophet. The little 
maid told him of the prophet; yet he was going to pass the prophet 
by. How many people would go into the kingdom of God, if it 
wasn't for pride! He was too proud to go to the prophet. But 
pride, if you will allow me the expression, got a knock on the head 
on this occasion. It was a terrible thing for him to think of obey- 
ing — going down to the Jordan, and dipping seven times. He had 
got better rivers in Damascus, in his own wisdom, and says, " Can I 
not wash there, and be clean?" He was angry; but when he got 
over it, he listened to his servants. I would rather see people angry 
than see them go to sleep. I would rather see a man get as angry 
as possible at anything that I may say, than send him to sleep. 



448 



THE LEPER. 



When a man's asleep, there's no chance of reaching him; but if he is 
angry, we may get at him. It is a good thing for a man to get an- 
gry, sometimes; for when he cools off, he generally listens to reason. 
So his servant came to him and said: "Suppose he had bid thee do 
some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?" Probably had he 
told him to take cod liver oil for ten years, he would have done it. 
If he had told him that he wanted as much money as Naaman had 
brought up, that would have been all right. But the idea of literal- 
ly doing nothing — just to go down to Jordan and wash himself — it 
was so far below his calculations, that he thought he was being im- 
posed upon. It is so in our days. How many people expect to get 
salvation by some sudden shock, some great event happening to 
them, or some sudden flash of light to break upon them. Some 
think that God's plan of salvation requires months to find out. They 
go on stumbling over its simplicity. And so his servant said: "If 
the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not 
iiave done it? hadn't you just bet.er go down and wash in Jordan?" 
Perhaps he said: "If I go down to Jordan and am not cured, what 
will my enemies say when I go back to Damascus?" But he was 
influenced by the servant, and he went. That was one good thing 
in Naaman's chaiacter: he was influenced by a humble messenger. 
A good many people won't accept a messenger, because he is not re- 
fined and cultured and educated. My friends, never mind who 
brings the message. It is the message you want, not the messenger. 
If a boy was to bring me a telegraphic message with good news, I 
wouldn't notice the boy, wouldn't look to see whether he was white 
or black. It would be the message I would want. And so it was 
with Naaman. Jt was a little Hebrew girl who first told him to 
come to Samaria; and now he was told to wash by his servant. 
So he goes down, and dips into the waters. The first time he rose 
he said: "I'd just like to see how much my leprosy has gone." And 
he looks, but not a bit has left him. " Well, I'm not going to get 
rid of my leprosy in this way; this is absurd." "Well, said the ser- 
vant, " do just as the man of God tells you; obey him." And this is 
just what we are told to do in the Scriptures, to obey Him. The first 
thing we have to learn is obedience. Disobedience was the pit Adam 
fell into; and we have to get out of it by obedience. Well, he goes 
into the water a second time. If some Chicago Christians had been 
there, they would have asked, sneeringly, " Well, how do you. feel 
now?" He didn't see that he was any better, and down he went a 
third time; but when he looked at himself, he had just as much lep- 
rosy as ever. Down he goes a fourth, fifth and sixth time. He looks 
at himself, but not a speck of it is removed. "I told you this," he 
says to his servant; "look here; I'm just the same as ever." " But," 
says the servant, "you must just do what the man of God tells you 
^•o rlo— -ro down seven times." He takes the seventh plunge, and 



NAAMAN, THE LEPER. 449 

comes out. He looks at himself; and behold, his flesh is as that of a 
little child. He says to his servant: "Why, I never felt as good as 
I do to-day. I feel better than if I had won a great battle. Look! 
I am cleansed. Oh, what a great day this is for me! The leprosy 
has gone." The waters to him had been as death and judgment; and 
he had come out resurrected — his flesh as that of a little child. I 
suppose he got into his chariot, and away he went to the man of God. 
He had lost his temper; he had lost his pride, and he had lost his 
leprosy. That is the way now. If a man will only lose his pride, he 
will soon see his leprosy disappear — the leprosy will go. away with 
his pride. I believe the greatest enemies of men in this world are 
unbelief and pride. I believe hundreds and thousands in Chicago 
would press into the kingdom of God, if it were not for their pride. 
He goes back to the man of God, and takes his silver and gold. He 
offers him money. "I don't want your money," replies the prophet. 
If he had taken money, it would have spoiled the beautiful story. 
Naaman had to take back everything he brought from Damascus, 
but his leprosy. The only thing that the sinner has that God wants 
is his sins; and if you let him take them to-night, he will. Get rid 
of your leprosy ; He will take it. Never mind your feelings. No 
soul in this audience will go down to the dark caverns, if he is will- 
ing to obey God. And now the question comes to you all to-night, 
will you obey him? You haven't got to go a thousand miles away 
and dip into a Jordan; but just believe where you sit — believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ. " Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Is there anything to hinder 
you from obeying God now? He will give you power to accept him. 
Do you believe He would offer you salvation without giving you the 
power to obey him? Don't go from this hall with any such delusion, 
my friends. Don't go home from this Tabernacle with this leprosy, 
thinking that you cannot get rid of it. If sin is better to you, then, 
of course, hold on to it; if leprosy is worth more to you than to be 
purified, then keep it. Naaman would have gone back with his lep- 
rosy, if he hadn't met that prophet and gone down to Jordan. If you 
go out of the Tabernacle to-night without accepting him, you go out 
as a sinner; and if death comes, as it may, suddenly upon you, there 
is no assurance in the Bible that you can pass through the pearly 
gates. There is no leprosy there; you must leave it here. If a leper 
was to get into the kingdom of heaven, all heaven would be affected 
by him. There is a fountain opened in the house of David for the 
lepers. This night you can be saved, if you will. The door is open 
— on the hinge; the battle is fought on this fact, if you will — not be- 
cause you can't. 

Oh, but you say, " I have tried." Naaman might have said, " I 
have tried," too. Probably he had tried all the physicians in his 
country; but Naaman couldn't be cured. He couldn't cure him- 
29 



450 HOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 

self. When Christ said to that man who had a withered hand 
hanging at his side, " Stretch out thy hand," he might have said : 
" I've tried to stretch it out for twenty years, and I can't do it.'"" 
But when the command was given him, the power came also. 
All that was wanted was the will of the man. My friends, if you 
don't accept the Gospel and obey it, and you go down to death, there 
is not a ray of hope that you will escape the punishment held out in 
the Bible. There is not a word in the Bible to lead you to believe 
that you will escape condemnation, if you go down to the grave with 
that leprosy. Do you think, I ask again, that He will ask you to 
repent and accept eternal life without giving you the power? The 
moment you obey, that moment the blessing comes. Who will ac- 
cept him to-night? I wish I could believe for you all; but I cannot. 
I would have you all come into the kingdom of God to-night. One 
of two things you have got to do — either accept the remedy He offers 
you, and be saved; or spurn the remedy, as Naaman was going to 
do, and go home with your sins. May God open your eyes to see the 
necessity of being saved by this great remedy. 



HOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 

I've chosen as my subject this morning: " How to hold an Inquiry 
Meeting; or, what are the best adapted Texts of Scripture to be 
dwelt upon at these meetings?" Of course, I am not going to quote 
all the texts that could be used, and to good advantage; I am just 
going to bring to mind some few of the best ones. And what I 
want first to call your attention to, if you are going to be successful 
in winning souls to Christ, is the need for discrimination in finding 
out people's differences. People are not the same in their wants 
spiritual more than temporal. What is good for one is rank poison 
for another. You can't treat all alike. I've a friend that always, 
when he is sick, drinks a lot of hot water, and goes to bed. Another 
says to me, Just take this dose and you will get well. It don't make 
any difference what's the matter with you, this friend has one single 
remedy. So, many a man has just one verse of Scripture; he's al- 
ways quoting it. It fits his case, and he thinks it does everybody 
else's. A man I knew up in Wisconsin was converted under a railway 
bridge; and to this day he keeps urging people to go right down 



HOW TO HELP INQUIREES. , 451 

under that bridge, if they want to get converted sure. But God 
never repeats himself. No two thoughts are just alike; no two needs 
are just alike; no two sinners are going to come to Christ in the 
same precise way. Instead of looking for others' experiences, look 
for one for yourself. So, when talking to persons in the inquiry- 
room, you must find out just these differences. Now, I am going to 
divide inquirers into classes or divisions this morning, and point out 
a few passages suitable for each. 

The first class, I think, in point of numbers, is that of the doubt- 
ers — those who are always in Doubting Castle. And these generally 
are among professing Christians. Oh, I think we shall make a diffe: 
ent start with these when we get to Boston, from what we did here. 
I'm convinced we made a mistake here, in not opening the inquiry- 
rooms for professing Christians first. For twenty or thirty years they 
have been living on, making empty professions. Now, they just 
want to get off their crutches, and get to walking and running for 
Christ. I don't believe they can accomplish much; I know they can't, 
if they continue in this half-dead state. If Christians haven't as- 
surance, they are just stumbling blocks; they are in the way of the 
work. How many hurts these professing Christians give, who show 
no sign of their faith! They have no joy in serving the Lord; and 
their children, with reason, say, "I don't want that kind of a relig- 
ion." And here I want to call your attention to a proper remedy for 
this class, to be found in the book of John. That whole book was 
written for this one thing, to help people out of Doubting Cas- 
tle, and teach them that they may know they are saved. Only Fri- 
day last I met a woman, a prominent member of a prominent church, 
who said it was presumption to say with certainty that we are saved. I 
said it was presumption to say that we are not saved, when we have 
the very word of the Lord Jesus Christ for it. Oh, if you will just 
read those precious words: "He that heareth my words, and be- 
lieveth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life;" and then 
turn to those other divine words: " These things have I written 
unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may 
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name 
of the Son of God:" if you will just read these sure words of God, 
you will not talk about having no assurance as to your salvation. 
Just believe in the words of the Son of God, and you know right 
now that you are saved. You know right now, I say, and don't have 
to put it off till you are going to die. Therefore, I would talk to 
these doubting citizens about the Epistle of John. I would say to 
you, persuade them to take these words of Jesus: "They have passed 
from death to life." Oh, yes, it is the privilege of every child of 
God to know that he is saved. 

The next class are the backsliding. They do not want so much 



452 UOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 

assurance as reviving. I know a lady who has a homeopathic doc- 
tor's book, and whenever she is at all out of sorts she goes right to 
it. In spiritual things there is a good remedy for all sorts, and for 
the backsliders as well. Though they have left God, he makes a 
way for them to return. I have just turned down the leaves of my 
Bible at the 2d and 3d chapters of Jermiah. I don't think anv one 
can feel this way with that Bible in hand. "Thus saith the Lord, 
What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far 
from me, and have walked after vanity and are become vain?" 
Now, what did Christ ever do against you? Did he ever lie to you? 
Did he ever abuse you? Did he ever deceive you? Only one man 
ever said that, and he was out of his head, and any one would know 
he was. No man can accuse Christ of any bias or offense. " What 
iniquity have you found in me?" None at all. The trouble has 
been with ourselves. It was he that brought the early Church 
through the wilderness, through all the dangers of the way, and into 
the promised land. It is he that gives you power and lifts you up. 
Oh, say, then, what evil or iniquity have you found in him? The 
trouble is with you, O backsliders, who " have forsaken the foun- 
tains of living waters, and hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns that 
can hold no water." The 19th verse says: "Thine own wickedness 
shall convict thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know, 
therefore, and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast 
forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the 
Lord of Hosts." Enforce the miseries of this text, and then use the 
exhortation of the 3rd chapter, 22nd verse: " Return, ye backslid- 
ing children, and I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we come 
unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God." And then the 14th verse: 
"Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against 
the Lord thy God." I remember repeating these promises to a 
backslider; and he couldn't believe them at first, for joy. How 
tender these words of Scripture to the backslider! Bring these 
words right to bear on them, and tell how God pleads with them. 
Read to them the opening words of Hosea, 14th chapter: " Return 
unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; say 
unto him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. * * I 
(God) will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine 
anger is turned away." Then bring up the story of the Prodigal for 
illustration; also the apostle Peter, how he was drawn to God after 
grievously backsliding, and how he was even admitted to the bless- 
ings of Pentecost. Then say: "You, too, can be restored if you 
only believe, and God will yet make you a blessing to believers." 

The third class are those who are not stricken by their sins; who 
have no deep conviction of guilt. Just bring the law of God to 
bear on these, and show them themselves in their true light. Re- 
peat Romans, 3d chapter, 10th verse: "There is none righteous, no, 



HOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 45 "6 

not one;" also the succeeding verses; and then repeat from Isaiah: 
14 The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint; from the sole of 
the foot even unto the head there is no soundness, but wounds and 
bruises and putrefying sores." And then bring in that verse, "The 
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." Don't 
try to heal the wound before the hurt is felt. You may, perhaps, 
get but few satisfactory inquirers in this way; but what you do get 
are worth something. If a man don't see his guilt, he won't be a 
valuable or true convert. Read him the first chapter of 1 John, 10th 
verse: "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, 
and his word is not in us;" and hold him right to it. Don't attempt 
to give the consolations of the gospel until your converts see they 
have sinned — see it, and feel it. I met a man who expressed doubts 
about his being much of a sinner. "Well," said I, "let's find out if 
you have sinned. Do you swear?" " Well, as a general rule, I 
only swear when I got mad," "Yes, yes; but what does the Lord 
say about not holding a man guiltless that swears? Believe me, he 
will hold you responsible for that; bear that in mind. You must be 
able to hold your temper, but if not, beware to take the name of 
God in vain. Are you not now a sinner?" And the man was con- 
vinced. Sometimes, too, I've found a merchant this way; and yet 
one openly confessed to me that he did cheat sometimes. "You lie, 
then, don't you?" said I. He didn't want to put it quite so plainly, 
but pretty soon saw it in my light. Oh yes; enforce this truth kindly 
but firmly, that our natural hearts are black and deceitful as hell. 
Man must say from his heart, "I have sinned, and come short of the 
glory of God." 

The fourth class are those completely broken down by a sense of 
sin; those who have too much conviction of sin distinguished from 
the preceding inquirers, who haven't enough. One of these tells 
you that God can't save such as he. Then you have to prove his 
mistake, and show that God can save to the uttermost. Take the 
1st chapter of Isaiah, 18th verse: "Come now, and let us reason to- 
gether, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool." Just turn your Bible right over to that passage, and many 
such passages in Isaiah; they will all help in the inquiry-room. The 
43d chapter, 25th verse, says: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." 
And the 22d verse of the next chapter is stronger: "I have blotted 
out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins; 
return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." Make the anxious soul 
believe that God has blotted out his sins as a thick cloud; make him 
see the dense cloud vanishing, as it were, from the face of the sun, 
vanishing forever; that cloud can never come up again; others may, 
but that old cloud of the past guilt is dissolved forever; the Lord 



4:54 HOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 

himself has blotted it out. Use the two verses, John i., 11, 12: "He 
came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as 
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, 
even to them that believe on his name." The idea is^ that those 
fearing ones cannot serve God until they receive Christ fully as their 
salvation; it won't do, for them to merely take up with some minis- 
ter, or church, or creed. The minister dies or moves away; the only 
lasting resource is in Christ at the right hand of God, where he will 
never forsake his own. Yes, press Jesus upon these anxious souls. 
Tell them " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son," etc. "So loved the world;" that includes them. If they in- 
habited some other land they might tremble; but they are on this 
earth, for all the sons and daughters of which Christ died, the just 
for the unjust. Use, also, the text: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me shall 
not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life." 
Now, some people do not just understand believing in Christ. They 
believe Christ came as an historical being, as Moses and Elijah came. 
They believe the Cunard line of steamers will take them to Liver- 
pool in twelve or fourteen days. But these beliefs don't make men 
good; they are head beliefs only. They are not what your inquirers 
want. What you and they want is heart belief; or, in other words, 
to just trust Christ to save you. Sometimes people can't digest the 
word "belief;" then let them take this sweet word "trust." From 
Isaiah 26: 3, 4, read to them: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. Trust 
ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength." By trusting in him, you see we have everlasting strength. 
You must get them to trust and believe entirely in Christ, and not 
try to save themselves. They cannot save themselves by their 
feelings; assure them of that. There is not a word of warrant for 
such a thought, from the first of Genesis to the last of Revelation. 
Oh, it is much better to trust in the precious, changeless Word of God 
than in our own changing feelings. Thank God, that this is also 
our duty! 

Then you hear some inquirers say, "I haven't got strength suffi- 
cient." But Christ died to be their strength. A loving hand will 
support them in the Christian journey, and "His strength will be 
made perfect in weakness." Bid such be strong in the Lord, and in 
the power of his might. 

And then another class, that cannot be saved in this way, they 
think, because doubting instantaneous conversion. Read to such 
from Romans,— -the 6th chapter, 23d verse: " The wages of sin is 
death, but the gift of God is eternal life." Salvation is a gift, and so 
must have a definite point in time. I say, " Will you take this 
Bible?" You must first make up your mind to take it, and then 



HOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 455 

reach out and — the work of an instant — grasp the gift. Just so with 
God's best gift, salvation; to take it is the work of an instant, and 
your inquirer may have it for the asking. " Let him that heareth 
say come;" "Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the water 
of life freely." With the gift, God gives the power to take it. When 
we get before the tribunal of the great white throne, we will have 
to answer for it if we refuse to take it. This is the richest jewel that 
heaven has; God gives up his Son to be our Savior. 

Another class say to you and me, when, in the inquiry-room, we 
press them to openly confess Christ, " We're afraid we won't hold 
out." Say to these repeatedly that blessed text, " Now unto him 
that is able to keep you from falling." Think, and tell them to think, 
of the thousands who never fall. The idea that it is necessary to fall 
into sin is wrong. Then take those passages: " I, the Lord thy God, 
will take thy right hand;" "Fear not, I will lead thee;" and, "I am 
persuaded that he will be able to keep them that are committed unto 
him against that day." Let a man just trust the Lord to keep him 
from falling, and he will do it. Suppose I have a hundred thousand 
dollars with me; it's all I have in the world; thieves are after it, and 
I'm quaking every minute lest they get it. I find my banker here, 
and I say: " Here, take it quick; I can't keep my money but by your 
help; I wish you would hurry and put it in the vault; when it's de- 
posited there, and not before, I shall be safe." Is not this the way 
to give our all into God's keeping? Is not this the way to live se- 
cure from temptation and backsliding? In God's keeping, we are 
safe. "Our life is hid with Christ in God?" Oh, let us each make 
this deposit of our personal trust this morning; trust him entirely, 
and then we can the better lead inquirers in the same way. Jesus 
can hold us close to himself. " Nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." If you just take up the words of Christ 
in the book of Romans, love and peace and joy flow out. One verse 
tells of love; the next of joy; the next and next of the peace that 
comes from believing, Romans, 4th chapter and 28th verse, and all 
those verses along there, might be read. The result of believing is 
joy, rest, and peace. John 15: 11 — that is joy; Matthew 11: 28 — 
that is rest; John 14: 27 — that is peace. Never, however, tell a 
man he is converted. Never tell him he is saved. Let him find that 
out from heaven. You can't afford to deceive one about this great 
question. But you can help his faith and trust, and lead him right. 
I find that those in the inquiry-room do best who do not run about 
from one to another, offering words of encouragement everywhere. 
They would better go to but one or two of an afternoon, or evening. 
We are building for eternity, and can take time. The work will 
not then be superficial. If it is so, it will not be the fault of the 
workers or preachers. And then, to do all our duty; we must 



456 HOW TO HELP INQUIRERS. 

talk more of restitution. I don't think we preach enough the need 
of our making good to one another injuries to person, property, or 
feeling. If you have done one a detriment, you must go and pay it 
back or make it up, if it is a tangible loss; and if it is a wound to 
the feelings, fully apologize. It is a good deal better to go up and 
do the fair thing, whatever the result. It may be that some will re- 
fuse such amends; but it is our duty to offer them. But in the end, 
a complete reconciliation from such a course is almost sure to result. 
The antipathy supposed to exist on the other side is often only im- 
agined. You need not expect that God is going to forgive you, if 
you don't forgive others. We say daily, "Forgive us our debts as 
we forgive our debtors;" and we must show that we understand this 
conditional request. What if God should take us at our word, and 
just forgive us to the extent to which our small grievances are for- 
given! And this he surely will do; so let us be wise. A young lady 
in Michigan, at a recent revival service, was troubled greatly, and to 
kind inquiries at last confessed that her unwillingness to confess 
Christ resulted from a school-room quarrel, which was still unsettled^ 
She felt she couldn't forgive her enemy, but at last told her trouble 
and asked for advice. "Must she forgive her mate?" "Certainly, 
if you want God's forgiveness," was the answer of the minister, and 
immediately she ran with all her might to her old friend; and, in- 
stead of meeting a cold reception, they were soon crying on each 
other's necks. And so it always should be; and most always there 
will be the same prompt half-way meeting between those aggrieved. 
My wife was laboring in the inquiry-room, the other evening, with 
a lady who was in just this state of mind, and very soon reparation 
and complete reconciliation was effected; and two old friends walked 
off arm in arm, happier than ever before this little misunderstanding. 
And one of these ladies felt so strong in her new-found charity for 
all, that she won over her husband; and last Sunday he openly in 
the Tabernacle confessed Christ, remembering that " With the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation." Many more texts, did time 
allow, might be cited, all applicable to anxious inquirers. 

But one word more. Do not let a man go out of the inquiry-room 
without praying with him. Fear not, but do the work boldly. There 
was a man the other day who said, " I don't believe there's any 
God." The resolute Christian worker, to whom be spoke, answered 
impetuously, "I will just ask God to shake you — to just shake this 
demon out of you." And down he fell on his knees by the poor in- 
fidel, and prayed with loud earnestness. The man began to shake 
from head to foot; it was God shaking him. And by just these 
means, more than any others, skeptics and infidels will know there 
is a God. Let me say a word to those ministers that have not gonej 
and do not go, into the inquiry-room. Many in your flocks, never 
beeing you there, think you are not in syrnpatlry with this work, and 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 45 7 

then begin to think you don't care anything about their salvation. 
They feel in bondage, and do not go to help them. Well, there was 
a minister in a city we visited who did not "condescend" to be seen 
in our humble Tabernacle. He would have nothing to do with us. 
One day he was at a dinner party where they were discussing our 
work. Said he: "That sort of thing is good enough for those peo- 
ple; but it would never do for me." "Well," said another clergy- 
man of the same belief, "fifty-seven of your congregation stood up 
in the tabernacle for prayers to-day, and all of them afterward went 
into the inquiry room." The cultured and popular pastor of those 
Christians could not kill the humane promptings to be charitable to 
all professing the name of Christ and to worship along with such, 
even in perhaps irregular modes. But with the cordial co-operation 
of every Christian pastor in the Tabernacle and inquiry-room, what 
limit would there be to the Christian inroads on the citadels of sin? 
Oh, make it a duty, all of you, to talk to some soul at every meeting 
in these blessed inquiry rooms. Don't take those in a position in 
life above your own, but take those on the same footing. Bend all 
your endeavors to answer for poor, struggling souls that question of 
all importance to them, "What must I do to be saved?" Yes, this 
is the question. What else but to answer it brought out these thou- 
sands at this early hour! My friends, God is with you in this work. 
Go on more diligently and implicitly trusting in him; go on to a 
more and more glorious harvest. 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

M Oh that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my com- 
mandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever." 
Deuteronomy 5: *9. 

I want to call your attention to Deuteronomy 5: 29. "Oh that, 
there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep 
all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and 
with their children for ever." And also the 6th chapter and 7th 
verse: " And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou 
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest 
up." I used to think, when 1 was superintendent on the North 



458 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

Side, when I was laboring among the children and trying to get the 
parents interested to save their children, that if I ever did become a 
preacher I would have but one text and one sermon, and that should 
be addressed to parents; because when we get them interested, their 
interest will be apparent in the children. We used to say, if we get 
the lambs in, the old sheep will follow; but I didn't find that to be 
the case. When we got the children interested on one Sunday, the 
parents would be sometimes pulling the other way all the week, and 
before Sunday came again the impression that had been made would 
be gone; and I came to the conclusion that, unless we can get the 
parents interested, or could get some kind Christian to look after 
those children, it would almost be a sin to bring them to Christ. If 
there is no one to nurse them, to care for them and just 
to water the seed, why they are liable to be drawn away, 
and when they grow up, to be far more difficult to reach. 
I wish to say to-night that I am as strong as ever upon sud- 
den conversion, and there are a great many ministers, a great 
many parents, who scoff and laugh when they hear of children 
who have been brought unto Christ at these meetings. Now, in 
many of the churches the sermons go over their heads; they don't 
do the young any good; they don't understand the preaching; and 
if they are impressed here, we ought not to discourage them. My 
friends, the best thing we can do is to bring them early to Christ. 
These earliest impressions never, never leave them; and I do not 
know why they should not grow up in the service of Christ. I con- 
tend that those who are converted early are the best Christians. 
Take the man who is converted at fifty. He has continually to fight 
.against his old habits; but take a young man or a young girl, and 
they get a character to form and a whole long life to give to Christ. 
An old man unconverted got up in an inquiry meeting recently, and 
said he thought we were very hard-hearted down in the Tabernacle; 
we went right by when we saw some young person. He thought, 
as he was old, he might be snatched away before these young people; 
but with us it seemed as if Christ was of more importance to the 
young than the old. I confess truly that I have that feeling. If a 
young man is converted, he perhaps has a long life of fifty years to 
devote to Christ; but an old man is not worth much, Of course, his 
soul is worth much; but he is not worth much for labor. 

While down at a convention in Illinois, an old man got up, past 
seventy years; he said he remembered but one thing about his father, 
and that one thing followed him all through life. He could not re- 
member his death, he had no recollection of his funeral; but he recol- 
lected his father one winter night, taking a little chip, and with his 
pocket-knife whittling out a cross, and with the tears in his eyes he 
held up that cross and told how God in his infinite love sent his Son 
down here to redeem us, how he had died on the cross for us. The 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 459 

story of the cross followed him through life; and I tell you, if you 
teach these children truths, they will follow them through life. We 
have got so much unbelief among us, like those disciples when they 
rebuked the people for bringing the children to Christ; but he said: 
" Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven." I heard of a Sunday-school con- 
cert at which a little child of eight was going to recite. Her mother 
had taught her, and when the night came the little thing was trem- 
bling so she could hardly speak. She commenced, " Jesus said," and 
completely broke down. Again she tried it, " Jesus said, suffer," 
but she stopped once more. A third attempt was made by her, 
"Suffer little children — and don't anybody stop them, for he wants 
them all to come;" and that is the truth. There is not a child who 
has parents in the Tabernacle but He wants, and if you bring them 
in the arms of your faith, and ask the Son of God to bless them and 
train them in the knowledge of God, and teach them as you walk 
your way, as you lie down at night, as you rise up in the morning, 
they will be blessed. But I can imagine some skeptic in yonder 
gallery saying, " That's well enough, but it is all talk. Why I have 
known children of ministers and Christian people who have turned 
out worse than others. I've heard that all my life; but I tell you 
that is one of the devil's lies. I will admit I've heard of many Chris- 
tian people having bad children, but they are not the worst children. 
That was tested once. A whole territory was taken in which fathers 
and mothers were Christians, and it was found that two-thirds of the 
children were members of churches; but they took a portion of coun- 
try where all the fathers and mothers were not Christians, and 
it was found that not one in twelve of the children attended churches. 
That was the proportion. Look at a good man who has had a bad 
son. Do you want to know the reason? In the first place, children 
do not inherit grace. Because fathers and mothers are good, that is 
no reason why their children should be good. Children are not born 
good. Men may talk of natural goodness, but I don't find it. Good- 
ness must come down from the Father of Light. To have a good 
nature, a man must be born of God. There is another reason — a 
father may be a very good man, but the mother may be pulling in 
another way. She may be ambitious, and may want her children to 
occupy a high worldly position. She has some high ambition, and 
trains the child for the world. Again, it may be the reverse — a holy, 
pious mother and a worldly father; and it is pretty hard when father 
and mother do not pull together. Another reason is, and you will 
excuse me the expression, but a great many people have got very 
little sense about bringing up children. Now, I've known mothers 
punish their children by making them read the Bible. Do not be 
guilty of such a thing. If you want children not to hate the Bible, 
do not punish them by making them read it. It is the most attract- 



400 ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 

ive book in the world. But that is the way to spoil its attractive- 
ness, and make them hate it with a perfect hate. There is another 
reason. A great many people are engaged in looking after other 
people's children and neglecting their own. No father or mother 
has a right to do this, whatever may be the position they hold in the 
world. The father may be a statesman, or a great business man; but 
he is responsible for his children. If they do not look after their 
children, they will have to answer for it some day. There will be a 
blight in their paths, and their last days will be very bitter. 

There are a great many reasons which I might bring forward, if 1 
had time, why good people's children turn out bad; but let me say 
one word about bringing up these children, how to train them in 
Christian ways. The Word is very plain, " Teach them diligently." 
In the street cars, as we go about our business night and morning, 
talk of Christ and heavenly things. It seems to me as if these things 
were the last things many of us think about, and as if Christ wa3 
banished from our homes. A great many people have a good name 
as Christians. They talk about ministers and Sunday-schools, and 
will come down and give a dinner to the bootblacks, and seem to be 
strong patrons of the cause of Christ; but when it comes to talking 
to children personally about Christ, that is another thing. The Word 
is very plain, " Teach them diligently;" and if we want them to 
grow up a blessing to the Church of God and to the world, we must 
teach them. I can imagine some of you saying: "It may be very 
well for Mr. Moody to lay down theories, but there are a great many 
difficulties in the way." I heard of a minister who said he had the 
grandest theory upon the bringing up of children. God gave him 
seven children, and he found that his theory was all wrong. They 
were all differently constituted. I will admit that this is one diffi- 
culty; but if our heart is set upon this one thing — to have our chil- 
dren in glory — God will give us all the light we need. He is not 
going to leave us in darkness. If that is not the aim of your heart, 
make it this very night. I would rather, if I went to-night, leave 
my children in the hope of Christ than leave them millions of money. 
It seems to me as if we were too ambitious to have them make a 
name, instead of to train them up for the life they are to lead for- 
ever. And another thing about government. Never teach them 
revenge. If a baby falls down on the floor, don't give it a book 
with which to strike the floor. They have enough of revenge in 
them without being taught it. Then don't teach them to lie. -You 
don't like that; but how many parents have told their children to 
.go to the door, when they did not want to see the visitor, and say, 
"Mother is not in." That is a lie. Children are very keen to de- 
tect. They very so hi see those lies, and this lays the foundation for 
a good deal of trouble afterward. "Ah," some of you say, " I never 
do this." "Well, suppose some person comes in that you don't want 



ADDEESS TO PAEENTS. 461 

to see. You give him a welcome, and when he goes you entreat 
him to stay; but the moment he is out of the door you say, " What 
a bore!" The children wonder at first; but they very soon begin to 
imitate the father and mother. Children are very good imitators. 
A father and mother never ought do a thing that they don't want 
their children to do. If you don't want them to smoke, don't you 
smoke; if you don't want them to chew, don't you chew; if you 
don't want them to play billiards, don't you play billiards; if you 
don't want them to drink, don't you drink, because children are 
grand imitators. A lady once told me that she was in her pantry on 
one occasion, and she was surprised by the ringing of the bell. As 
she whirled round to see who it was, she broke a tumbler. Her lit- 
tle child was standing there, and she thought her mother was doing 
a very correct thing, and the moment the lady left the pantry, the 
child commenced to break all the tumblers she could get hold of. 
You may laugh, but children are very good imitators. If you don't 
want them to break the Sabbath day, keep it holy yourself; if you 
want them to go to church, go to church yourself. It is very often 
by imitation that they utter their first oath, that they tell their first 
lie, and then this act grows upon them; and when they try to quit 
the habit it has grown so strong upon them that they cannot do it. 
"Ah," some say, "we do not believe in children being converted. 
Let them grow up to manhood and womanhood, and then talk of 
converting them." They forget that in the meantime their characters 
are formed, and perhaps they have commenced to enter the dens of 
infamy; and when they have arrived at manhood and womanhood, 
we find it is too late to alter their character. How unfaithful we are. 
" Teach them diligently." How many parents in this vast assembly 
know where their sons are. Their sons may be in the halls of vice. 
Where does your son spend his evenings? You don't care enough 
for him to ascertain what kind of company he keeps, what kind of 
books he reads; you don't care whether he is reading those miserable, 
trashy novels or not, and getting false ideas of life. You don't 
know till it is too late. Oh, may God wake us up and teach us the 
responsibility devolving upon us in training our children. While in 
London, an officer in the Indian army, hearing of us being over there, 
said: "Lord, now is the time for my son to be saved." He got a fur- 
lough and left India, and came to London. When he came there lor 
that purpose, of course God was not going to let him go away with- 
out the blessing. How many men are interested in their sons 
enough to do as this man did? How many men are sufficiently in- 
terested in them to bring them here? How many parents stand in 
the way of the salvation of their children? I don't know anything 
that discouraged me more, when I was superintendent on the North 
Side, than when, after begging with parents to allow their children 
to come to Sunday-school — and how few of them came — whenever 



462 ADDEESS TO PAEENTS. 

spring arrived those parents would take those children from the 
school, and lead them into those German gardens. And now a great 
many are reaping the consequences. I remember one mother who 
heard that her boy was impressed at our meeting. She said her son 
was a good enough boy, and he didn't need to be converted. I 
pleaded with that mother, but all my pleading was of no account. 
I tried my influence with the boy; but while I was pulling one way 
she was pulling the other. Her influence prevailed. Naturally it 
would. Well, to make a long story short, some time after I hap- 
pened to be in the County Jail, and I saw him there. " How did 
you come here?" I asked; "does your mother know where you are?" 
"No, don't tell her; I came here under an assumed name, and I am 
going to Joliet for four years. Do not let my mother know of this," 
he pleaded; " she thinks I am in the army." I used to call on that 
mother, but I had promised her boy I would not tell her, and for 
four years she mourned over that boy. She thought he had died on 
the battle-field, or in a Southern hospital. What a blessing he might 
have been to that mother, if she had only helped us to bring him to 
Christ. But that mother is only a specimen of hundreds and thou- 
sands of parents in Chicago. If we would have more family altars 
in our homes and train them to follow Christ, why the Son of God 
would lead them into "green pastures;" and instead of having sons 
who curse the mothers who gave them birth, they would bless their 
fathers and mothers. In the Indiana Penitentary, I was told of a 
man who had come there under an assumed name. His mother 
heard where he was. She was too poor to ride there, and she footed 
it. Upon her arrival at the prison, she at first did not recognize her 
son in his prison suit and short hair; but when she did see who it 
was, that mother threw her arms around that boy and said: "I am 
to blame for this; if I had oily taught you to obey God and keep 
the Sabbath, you would not have been here." How many mothers, 
if they were honest, could attribute the ruination of their children 
to their early training. God has said, if we don't teach them those 
blessed commandments he will destroy us; and the law of God never 
changes. It does not only apply to those callous men who make no 
profession of religion, but to those who stand high in the church, if 
they make the same mistake. Look at that high priest Eli. He was 
a good man and a kind one, but one thing he neglected to do — to 
train his children for God. The Lord gave him warning, and at last 
destruction came upon his house. Look at that old man ninety- 
eight years old, with his white hair, like some of the men on the 
platform, sitting in the town of Shiloh, waiting to hear the result of 
the battle. The people of Israel came into the town and took out 
the ark of God, and when it came into the camp a great shout went 
up to heaven, for they had the ark of their God among them. They 
thought they were going to succeed; but they had disobeyed God. 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 463 

When the battle came on they fought manfully, but no less than 
30,000 of the Israelites fell by the swords of their enemies; and a 
messenger came running from the field through the streets of Shiloh 
to where Eli was, crying: " Israel is defeated, the ark is taken, and 
Hophni and Phineas have been slain in battle." And the old priest, 
when he heard it, fell backward by the side of the gate, and his neck 
broke and he died. Oh, what a sad ending to that man; and when 
his daughter-in-law heard the news, there was another death in that 
family recorded. In that house destruction was complete. My 
friends, God is true; and if we do not obey him in this respect, he 
will punish us. It is only a question of time. Look at king David. 
See him waiting for the tidings of the battle. He had been driven 
from his throne by his own son, whom he loved; but when the news 
came that he was slain, see how he cried: "O my son Absalom! 
would to God I had died for thee!" It was worse than death to him; 
but God had to punish him, because he did not train his son to love 
the Lord. My friends, if he punished Eli and David, he will punish 
you and me. May God forgive us for the past, and may we com- 
mence a new record to-night. My friends, if you have not a family 
altar, erect one to-night. Let us labor that our children may be 
brought to glory. Don't say children are too young. Mothers and 
lathers, if you hear your children have been impressed with religion, 
don't stand in the way of their conversion, but encourage them all 
you can. 

While I was attending a meeting in a certain city some time ago, a 
lady came to me and said: "I want you to go home with me; I have 
something to say to you." When we reached her home, there were 
some friends there. After they had retired, she put her arms on the 
table, and tears began to come into her eyes, but with an effort she 
repressed her emotion. After a struggle, she went on to say that 
she was going to tell me something which she had never told any 
other living person. I should not tell it now, but she has gone to 
another world. Sha said she had a son in Chicago, and she was very 
anxious about him. When he was young, he got interested in re- 
ligion at the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association. He 
used to go out in the street and circulate tracts. He was her only 
son, and she was very ambitious he should make a name in the 
world, and wanted to get him into the very highest circles. Oh, what 
a mistake people make about these highest circles. Society is false; 
it is a sham. She was deceived, like a good many more votaries of 
fashion and hunters after wealth at the present time. She thought 
it was beneath her son to go down and associate with those young 
men who hadn't much money. She tried to get him away from 
them, but they had more influence than she had; and, finally, to 
break off this old association, she packed him off to a boarding- 
school. He went soon to Yale College, and she supposed he got 



464 ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 

into one of those miserable secret societies there that have ruined so 
many young men ; and the next thing she heard was that the boy had 
gone astray. She began to write letters urging him to come into 
the kingdom of God; but she heard that he tore the letters up with- 
out reading them. She went to him, to try and regain whatever in- 
fluence she possessed over him; but her eiforts were useless, and she 
came home with a broken heart. He left New Haven, and for two 
years they heard nothing of him. At last they heard he was in Chi- 
cago; and his father found him, and gave him thirty thousand dol- 
lars to start in business. They thought it would change him; but it 
didn't. They asked me when I went back to Chicago, to try and use 
my influence with him. I got a friend to invite him to his house 
one night, where I intended to meet him; but he heard I was to be 
there, and did not come near. Like a good many other young men, 
who seem to be afraid of me, I tried many times to reach him, but 
could not. While I was traveling one day on the New Haven rail- 
road, I bought a New York paper, and in it I saw a dispatch saying 
he had been drowned in Lake Michigan. His father came on to find 
his body, and after considerable searching, he discovered it. All 
the clothes and his body were covered with sand. The body was 
taken home to that broken-hearted mother. She said, "If I thought 
he was in he iven, I would have peace." Her disobedience of God's 
law came back upon her. So, my friends, if you have a boy impress- 
ed with the gospel, help him to come to Christ. Bring him in the 
arms of your faith, and he will unite you closer to him. Let us have 
faith in him, and let us pray day and night that our children may be 
born of the Spirit. 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 

'•And Elijah came unto all the people and paid, How long halt ye between two opinions? 
If the Lord be G<>d, follow him ; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him 
not a word. 1 ' 1 Kings 13:21. 

I want to call your attention to-night to a text which you will find 
in the 18th chapter of 1st Kings, 21st verse: "And Elijah came unto 
all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If 
the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the 
people answered him not a word " We find in this portion of the 
Word of God that Elijnh was calling the people of Israel back, or he 



ADDUESS TO YOUNG MEN. 465 

was calling them to a decision as to whether they were for God or 
Baal, and a great many were wavering, just halting between two 
opinions, like the people of Chicago at the present time. 

During the last eight weeks, a great deal has been said upon 
the subject of religion. Men have talked about it all over the city. 
A great many are talking, a great many are taking their stand for, 
and a great many against him. Now, what will you do to-night? I 
will just divide this audience into two portions — one against and one 
for him. It seems to me a practical question to ask an audience like 
this: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, 
follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." A man who is undecided 
about any question of any magnitude never has any comfort, never 
has any peace. Not only that, but we don't like a man who cannot 
decide upon a question. I like men of decision, and firmly believe 
that more men are lost by indecision than by anything else. It is a 
question whether I am not talking to many men to-night who intend 
some day to settle this question. Probably every one here intends 
to make heaven his home; but Satan is trying to get you to put off 
the settlement of the question till it will be too late. Jf he can only 
get men to put off till the to-morrow, which never comes, he has ac- 
complished all he wants. How many in this audience has promised 
some friend, years ago, that they would settle this question. Maybe 
you said you would do it when you came of age. That time has 
gone with some of you, and it has not been settled yet. Some have 
reached thirty, some forty, and others have reached fifty years; their 
eyes are growing dim, and they are hastening toward eternity, and 
this is not settled with them yet. Some of you have promised dying 
brothers that you would meet them in that world; some have prom- 
ised dying wives that you would see them in that land of light; and 
again, others have given your word to dying children that you would 
meet them in heaven. Years have rolled away, and still you have 
not decided. You have kept putting it off, week by week and year 
by year. My friends, why not decide to-night? "How long halt 
ye between two opinions?" If the Lord be God, serve him; if not, 
turn your back upon him. • It seems to me a question every man can 
settle, if he will. You like those grand old characters in the Bible, 
who have made a decisive stand. Look at Moses! The turning 
point in his life was when he decided to give up the gilded court of 
Pharaoh and cast, his lot with God's people. You will find that every 
man who has left a record in the Bible has been a man of decision. 
What made Daniel so great? It was because he was a man of decis- 
ion. What saved the prodigal? It was not that he got into his 
father's arms; it was not his coming home. The turning point was 
when he decided the question: " I will arise and go to my father." 
It was the decision of the young man that saved him. Many a man 
hns been lost because of : n<'*?*?te;or. T .o-"-k n': Fe- : x* l^k at Aorrinrm. 
30 



400 ADDKESS TO YOUNG MEN. 

Felix said: "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient 
season I will call for thee." See what Agrippa said: "Almost 
thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Look at Pilate — all lost; lost 
because of his indecision. His mind was thoroughly convinced that 
Jesus was the true Christ. He said, "I find no fault in him;" but he 
hadn't the courage to take his stand for him. Thousands have goiu- 
down to the caverns of death for want of courage. 

My friends, let us look this question in the face. If there is any- 
thing at all in the religion of Christ, give everything for it. If there 
is nothing in it; if it is myth; if our mothers, who have prayed over 
us, have been deceived; if the praying people of the last 1,800 years 
have been deluded, let us find it out. The quicker, the better. If 
there is nothing in the religion of Christ, let us throw it over, and 
eat, drink, and be merry, for time will soon be gone. If there is no 
devil to deceive us, no hell to receive us; if Christianity is a sham, 
let us come out like men and say so. I hope to live to see the time 
when there only be two classes in this world — Christians and infi- 
dels; those who take their stand bravely for him, and those who* 
take their stand against him. This idea of men standing still and 
saying: "Well, 1 don't know, but I think there must be something* 
in it," is absurd. If there is anything in it, there is everything in it. 
If the Bible of our mothers is not true, let us burn it. Is there one 
in this audience willing to say and do this? If it is a myth, why 
spend so much money in publishing it? Why send out millions of 
Bibles to the nations of the earth? Let us destroy it, if it is false, 
and all those institutions giving the gospel to the world. What is 
the use of all this waste of money? Are we mad, are we lunatics 
who have been deluded? Let us burn the book, and send up a 
shout over its ashes: "There is no God; there is no hell; there is 
no heaven; there is no hereafter. When men die, they die like 
dogs in the street!" But, my friends, if it is true — if heaven, if the 
hereafter in the Bible, is true, let us come out boldly, like men, for 
Christ. Let us take our stand, and not be ashamed of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. Why, it seems to me a question that ought to be set- 
tled in this nineteenth century easy enough, whether you are for or 
against him, or not. Why, if Baal be God, follow him; but if the 
Lord be God, follow him. If there is no truth in the religion of 
Jesus Christ, you may as well tear down all your churches, destroy 
your hospitals, your blind asylums. It's a waste of money to build 
them. Baalites don't build blind asylums; they don't build hospitals 
or orphan asylums. If there hadn't been any Christians in the world, 
there would have been no charitable institutions. If it hadn't been 
for Christianity, you would have had no praying mothers. Is it true 
that their prayers have exercised a pernicious influence? Is it true 
that a boy who had a praying father and mother, or a good teacher, 
is no better off than a boy who has been brought up amid blasphemy 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 46'< 

and infamy? Is it true? It must be either one way or the other. 
Did bad men write that Bible? Certainly not, or they wouldn't have 
consigned themselves to eternal perdition. The very fact that the 
Bible has lived and grown during these 1,800 years, is a strong proof 
that it came from God. Men have tried to put it out of the world; 
they have tried to burn it out of the world; but they have failed. It 
has come down to as — down these 1,800 years, amidst persecution; 
and now we are in a land where it is open to all, and no man need 
be without one. What put it into the minds of those men to give 
money liberally to print and circulate this book? Bad men wouldn't 
do this. This is a question that, it seems to me, could be decided 
to-night. If it is not good, then take your stand. If the Lord be 
God, follow him, but if God be Baal, then follow him. Some one 
asked Alexander how he conquered the world, and he replied, that 
he conquered it by not delaying. If you want to conquer the devil, 
you must not delay. Accept eternal life as a gift to-night. 

Let us take the surroundings of this text. We are told that Elijah 
stood before Ahab and told him, because of the evil deeds of Israel 
and the king, there would no rain come upon the land for three years 
and a half. After that Elijah went to the brook Cherith, where he 
was fed by the ravens; then he went to Zarephath, and there uwelfc 
with a poor widow for months and months. Three years and a half 
rolled away, and not one drop of rain or dew had come from heaven. 
Probably, when Elijah told the king there would be no rain, he 
laughed at him. The idea that he should have the key of Heaven t 
He scouted the very idea, at first. But after a little, it became a 
very serious matter. The brooks began to dry up; the cattle could 
not get water; the crops failed the first year; the next year they were 
worse; the third year they were even a worse failure; and the people 
began to flee out of his kingdom to get food; and yet they did not 
call upon Elijah's God. They had 450 prophets of Baal, and 400 
prophets of the groves; and yet all their prayers did not bring rain. 
Why did they not ask God for rain? Baal was not an answerer of 
prayer. The devil never answers prayer. If prayer has ever been 
answered, it has been answered by the God of our fathers, by the 
God of our mothers. After Elijah had been gone three and a half 
years, he returns and meets Obadiah, the governor of the king's 
house, to whom Ahab had said: "You go down that way, and I'll go 
down this way, and see if we can't discover water." They hadn't 
been separated long when Obadiah meets Elijah, and asks him to 
come to the king. The prophet tells him to go and say to Ahab, 
"Elijah is here." But Obadiah don't want to leave him, and says: 
" If I lose sight of you this time, when the king knows you have 
stepped through my hands, it may cost me my life. Don't you know 
I've been a servant of the true God all the time, and I've had a hun- 
dred of the prophets of the Lord in a cave. If you don't come I will 



468 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 



lose my life." Elijah tells him to go and bring Ahab; and instead of 
Elijah going to Ahab, Ahab comes to him. As soon as the king 
comes he says: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" That is the way 
with men. They bring down the wrath of God upon themselves, and 
then blame God's people. A great many people are blaming God 
for these hard times. Look on the millions and millions of money 
spent for whisky. Why, it is about time for famine to strike the 
land. If men had millions of money, it wouldn't be long before all 
the manhood would be struck out of them. Now, the people of Israel 
had gone over to Baal; they had forgotten the God that brought them 
out of Egypt — the God of Jacob and Abraham and of their fathers. 
"Now," says Elijah, " let's have this settled. Let some of your peo- 
ple make an offering to their God on Mount Carmel, and 1 will make 
an offering to my God; and the God that answers by fire will be the 
God." 

The king agrees, and the day arrives. You can see a great stir 
among the people that day. They are moving up to Mount Carmel. 
By and by Ahab comes up in his roya\ carriage, and those four hun- 
dred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the 
groves made a great impression. Dressed in priestly robes, they 
moved solemnly up that mountain. The king has swept along in 
his chariot, and perhaps passed by the poor priest Elijah, who comes 
slowly up, leaning upon his staff, h.s long white hair streaming about 
his shoulders. People don't believe in sensations, but that was one 
of the greatest sensations of their age. What is going to happen? 
No doubt the whole nation had been talking about this Elijah, and 
when he came to that mountain, the crowd looked upon him as the 
man who held the key of heaven. When he came up, he addressed 
the children of Israel; perhaps there were hundreds of thousands 
there. " How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be 
God, follow him; but if he be Baal, then follow him. And the peo- 
ple answered him not a word." Their eight hundred and fifty proph- 
ets had made a great impression upon them, and the king was afraid 
too. These people are just like a great many people now. They 
are afraid to go into the inquiry room, for what people will say. If 
they do go in, they get behind a post, so that they can't be seen. 
They are afraid the people in the store will find it out, and make 
fun of them. Moral courage is wanted by them, as it was wanted 
by those people. How many among us have not the moral courage 
to come out for the God of our mothers! People know these black- 
hearted hypocrites around them are not to be believed. They know 
these men who scoff at their religion are not their friends, while their 
mothers will do everything for them. The truest friends we can 
have are those who believe in Christ. " And the people answered 
him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, 
remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 4G ( J 

and fifty men. Let them, therefore, give us two bullocks; and let 
them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and 
lay it on wood, and put no fire under it; and I will dress the other 
bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it. And call ye 
on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord, 
and the God that answereth by fire let him be God. And all the 
people answered and said, " It is well spoken." — " Yes, sir, that's 
right. We'll stand by that decision." They built an altar, and laid 
their bullock on it, and began to cry to Baal, "O Baal! O Baal! 
Baal! Baal!" No answer. They cry louder and louder, but no an- 
swer comes. They pray from morning till noon, but not a sound. 
Elijah says: "Louder; you must pray louder. He must be on a 
journey; he must be asleep. He must be on a journey, or asleep." 
They cry louder and louder. Some people say it don't matter what 
a man believes, so long as he is earnest. These men were terribly 
in earnest. No Methodists shout as they did. They cry as loud as 
their voices will let them, but no answer. They take their knives 
and cut themselves, in their earnestness. Look at those four hun- 
dred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the 
grove, all covered with blood, as they cry out in their agony. They 
have no God. Young man, who is your master? Whom do you 
serve? If you are serving Baal, I tell you, if ever you get into 
trouble, he will not answer you. No answer came. Three o'clock 
came, the hour for the evening sacrifice; and Elijah prepared his 
altar. He would have nothing to do with the altar of Baal. He 
merely took twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, 
and built his altar, and laid his bullock on. No doubt some skeptic 
said he had some fire concealed in his garment, for he digs a trench 
all around it to hold water. Then he tells them to bring four barrels 
of water, and empties them over his sacrifice. Four more barrels 
are brought and thrown on the bullock, making eight, and then four 
barrels more are added, making twelve in all. Then, there lies that 
bullock, dripping with water; and Elijah comes forward. Every ear 
and eye is open. Those bleeding Baalites look at him. What is 
going to be the end of it? He comes forward, calm as a summer 
evening. He prays to the God of Isaac and Abraham — when, be- 
hold, look! look! down it comes — fire from the very throne of God, 
and consumes the wood and the stones and the sacrifice, and the 
people cry, " The Lord is the God!" The question is decided. The 
God that answereth by fire is the God of man. My friends, who is 
your God now? The God who answers prayer? or have you no 
God? 

I can imagine some of you saying: "If I had been on Mount Car- 
mel and se»m that, I would have believed it." Bat I will tell you 
of amount on which occurred another scene. That was a wonderful 
scene; but it does not compare with the scene on Calvary. Look 



-1:70 ADDKESS TO YOUNG MEN*. 

there! God's own beloved Son hanging between two thieves, and 
crying; " Father forgive them, for they know not what they do," 
Talk about wonderful things. This has been the wonder of ages. 
A man once gave me a book of wonderful things. I saw a good many 
wonders in it; but I did not see anything so wonderful in it as the 
story of the cross. My friends, see his expiring look. See what hap- 
pened. The very rocks were rent, and the walls of the temple were 
rent; and all nature owned its God. The sun veiled its face and 
darkness fell over the earth, when the Son of man expired on Mount 
Calvary. Where can you find a more wonderful sight than this? 
Those Israelites lived on the other side of the cross; we live on this 
side of it. If a man wants proof of his gospel, look around this as- 
sembly. See men who thirty days ago were slaves, bound hand and 
foot to some hellish passion which was drawing them to hell. What 
a transformation there is. All things seem changed to them. They 
have got a new nature. "Is not this the power of God?" said a 
young convert to me to-day; "It seems as if we were living in the 
days of miracles, and the Son of God is coming down and giving 
men complete victory over lusts and passions." That is what the 
Son of God does for men; and yet, with all the proofs before their 
eyes, men are undecided. 

What is it that keeps you from your decision? I wish I had time 
to tell you many of the reasons. Hundreds of thousands of men 
are thoroughly convinced; but they lack moral courage to come out 
and confess their sins. Others are being led captive by some sin. 
They have got some darling sin, and as long as they hold on to it 
there is no hope. A man the other day said he would like to be- 
come a Christian, but he had a bet upon the election, and he wanted 
that settled first. He did not think that he might die before that 
was decided. Eternity is drawing on. Suppose we die without 
God, without hope, without everlasting life, it seems to me it would 
have been better never to have been born. My friends I ask you 
to-night, why not come out like men? Say, "Cost what it will, I 
will accept Jesus to-night." Now have moral courage. Come. 
How many of you are thoroughly convinced in your minds that 
you ought to be Christians to-night? Now just ask yourselves the 
question: "What hinders me, w T hat stands in my way?" I can 
imagine some of you looking behind you, to see how the one si, ting 
there looks. If he seems serious, you look serious; if he laughs, you 
will laugh, and come to the conclusion that you will not accept him 
to-night. You think of your companions, and you say you cannot 
stand their jeers. Is not that so? Come. Trample the world under 
your feet and take the Lord to-night, cost what it will. Say, "By the 
grace of God, I will serve him from this hour." Turn your backs upon 
hell, and set your faces toward heaven; and it will be the best night of 
your lives. Have you ever seen a man who accepted Christ regret it? 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 471 

You cannot fiud a man who has changed masters and gone over to 
Christ who has regretted it. This is one of the strongest proofs of 
Christianity. Those who have never followed him only regret it. I have 
seen hundreds dying, when in the army and when a missionary, and 
I never saw a man who died conscious but who regretted that he had 
not lived a Christian life. My friends, if you accept him to-night, it 
will be the best hour of your life. Let this night be the best night 
of your lives. Let me bring this to your mind. If you are lost, it 
will be because you do not decide. " How long halt ye between two 
opinions. If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow 
him." How many men in this assembly want to be on the Lord's 
side? Those who want to take their stand on the side of the true 
God, rise. 

Upon this request by Mr. Moody, nearly 2,000 men instantly 
arose. 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 

" Tekel ; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Daniel 5: 27. 

You will find my text to-night in one short word, " Tekel," mean- 
ing: "Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." 
In the 5th chapter of Daniel we read the history of the King Bel- 
shazzar. It is very short. Only one chapter tells us all we know 
about him. One short sight of his career is all we see. He just 
seems to burst upon the stage, and then disappears. We are told 
that he gave a great feast, and at this feast he had a thousand of 
his lords; and they were drinking and praising the gods of silver, of 
gold, of brass, of iron, and of wood, out of the vessels which had been 
brought from the temple at Jerusalem. As they were drinking out 
of these vessels of gold and silver from the house of God, — I don't 
know but what it was at the midnight hour, all at once came forth 
the fingers of a man's hand and began to write upon the wall of the 
hall. The king turns deathly pale; his knees shake together, and 
he trembles from head to foot. Perhaps if some had told him the 
time was coming when he would be put into the balance and weigh- 
ed, he would have laughed at him. But he knows the vital hour has 
come; and that hand has written his doom in the words, "Mene, 
mene, tekel upharsin." He calls the wise men of his kingdom; and the 



472 WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 

man who can interpret this will be made the third ruler of his king- 
dom, and be clothed in scarlet, and have a chain about his neck. 
One after another tried, but no uncircumcised eye could make it out. 
He was greatly troubled. At last one was spoken of who had been 
able to interpret the dream of his father Nebuchadnezzar. He was 
told if he would send for Daniel, he might interpret the writing. 
And now the prophet came in and looked upon the handwriting, and 
told him how his father had gone against God, and now he, Belshaz- 
zar, had gone against the Lord of heaven, and how his reign was fin- 
ished. And this was the writing: "Mene: God hath numbered the 
kingdom and finished it; tekel: Thou art weighed in the balance, 
and art found wanting: peres: thy kingdom is divided, and given to 
the Medes and the Persians." The trial is over, the verdict is ren- 
dered, and the sentence brought out. That very night the king was 
hurled from his throne. That very night the army of Darius came 
tearing down the streets, and you might have heard the clash of 
arms, shouts of war, and have seen the king's blood mingling with 
the wine in that banquet hall. 

Now I want to call your attention to the word "tekel." We are 
weighed in the balance. Now you cavil at the Word of God; you 
make light when all is going well in the hour of your prosperity. 
But when the time of trial comes, and we are called into judgment, 
it will be altogether different. Suppose the sentence should come 
down from heaven, upon every man and woman in this tabernacle, 
to be weighed in the balance to-night, how would it be with you? 
Come, my friends, are you ready to be weighed to-night? Not in 
our own scales, but in God's balance. Suppose the scales were 
dropped now from the kingdom of God; are you ready to step into 
the balance and be weighed. Are you willing to be weighed by the 
law? I can imagine some of you saying, "I wouldn't be weighed 
by that law (meaning the decalogue); I don't believe it." Some 
men think we are away beyond the Mosaic law; we have got out of 
it. Why, Christ said in the 5th chapter of Matthew: "Think not 
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; 1 am not come 
to destroy but to fulfill. Heaven and earth may pass away, but my 
law shall never pass away;" but not until heaven and earth shall be 
removed will the Word of God be removed. Now the command- 
ments that I read to you to-night are as binding as ever they have 
been. Many men say that we have no need of the commandments, 
only of the sermon on the Mount. " Think not that I am come to 
destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to 
fulfill." Now, my friends, are you ready to be weighed by the law 
of God — by that magic law? What is the first commandment? 
"Thou shalt have no other Gods but me." Are you ready to be 
weighed by this commandment? Now, the question is, have you 
fulfilled, or are you ready to fulfill, all the requirements of this law? 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 473 

A great many people say, if they keep the commandments they don't 
need Christ. But have you kept them? I will admit if you keep 
the commandments you can be saved by them; but is there a man 
in this audience who can truly say that he has done this? Young 
lady, can you say, " I am ready to be weighed by the law to-night ?" 
Can you, young man? Now, suppose we have these commandments- 
written upon pieces of iron. You know, when you go into a grocery 
store, you see them taking a weight and putting it into the scales- 
against what you have bought. Now, suppose the pieces of iron as 
weights, and the law of God written on them. Take this first com- 
mandment, " Thou shalt have no other God but me," upon one of 
the weights. Put it in one of the scales and just step on the other. 
"Thou art weighed in the balance." Is your heart set upon God 
to-night? Have you no other idol? Do you love him above father 
or mother, the wife of your bosom, your children, home or land, 
wealth or pleasure? Have you got another God before him? If you 
have, surely you are not ready to step in and be weighed against 
that commandment, "Thou shalt have no other God before me." 
That is the commandment of God, and it is binding to-night. Then 
take another. You will say there is no trouble about this one. We 
might go off to other ages or other lands, and we can find people 
who worship idols; but we have none here. But how many idols- 
have we in our hearts? Many a man says: "Give me money, and I 
will {rive you heaven; what care I for all the glories and treasures of 
heaven ; give me treasures here. I don't care for heaven ; I want to- 
be a successful business man." They make money and business 
their god. Although they don't make gods of silver and gold, they 
bow before them. There are more men who worship silver and gold 
in Chicago than any other god. But take another one: "Thou 
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Is there a 
swearing man ready to pat the weight into the scales and step in? 
Young man, have you been taking the name of the Lord in vain to- 
day? What does he say? "The Lord will not hold him guiltless 
that taketh his name in vain." I don't believe men would ever have 
been guilty of swearing unless God had told them not to. They 
don't swear by their friends, by their fathers and mothers, by their 
wives, by their children. But because God has forbidden it, man 
wants to show how he despises his law. "Thou shalt not take the 
name of the Lord thy God in vain." Blasphemer, go into the scales 
and see how quick you will fly out. You will be like a feather in 
the balance. A great many men think there is nothing very serious- 
in swearing; they don't think there's much wrong in it. Bear in 
mind that ho sees something in it when he says: "Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." You cannot trifle with 
God. Some men say they never swear except when they get angry. 
Suppose you swear only once in six months, or a year — suppose you. 



474 WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 

swear once in ten years, do you think God will hold you guiltless for 
that one act? A man that swears once shows that his heart is re- 
bellious to God. What are you going to do, blasphemer? If the 
balances were here to-night, and God told you to step in, what would 
yon do? 

But take the fourth commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day 
and keep it holy." Suppose you could see the law written over 
these walls, "Remember to keep the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," 
could you say that you had observed it? Are you ready to be 
weighed by the weight, " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
holy"? Some of us may be professed Christians, but do we observe 
the Sabbath? If this country falls into neglect of the observance of 
the Sabbath, it will go the way of France, Mexico, and Spain. Every 
nation that gives up the Sabbath must go down. It is only a ques- 
tion of time with them. Look when the children of Israel refused 
to obey the injunction of the Lord in regard to the cultivation of 
their land, how he took them into bondage and kept them for seventy 
years, to let them know that God's land was not to be trampled 
under their feet. Are you guilty or not, guilty or innocent, in re- 
gard to this law: "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy?" When 
I was in France in 1867, I could not tell one day from another. On 
Sunday stores were open, buildings were being erected, the same 
as on other days. See how quick that country went down. Only a 
few years ago it stood breast to breast with other nations; it stood 
side by side almost with England. But it didn't have any respect 
for the Sabbath; it trampled God's message under foot; and w r hen 
the hour of battle came, God left it alone. My friends, every nation 
that tramples the Sabbath under its feet must go to ruin. Are you 
innocent or guilty? Do you keep the Sabbath day holy, or not? I 
have been talking to those car conductors — and if there's any class 
of men I pity more than another it is them; and they have to work 
on the Sabbath. Some of you are breaking this law by coming down 
here on Sunday in the cars. What will you do? Foot it. It will be 
better for you. I make a point of never allowing myself to break 
the Sabbath of any man. When I was in London, and it's a pretty 
big city, you know, in my ignorance I made arrangements to preach 
four times in different places one Sunday. After I had made the ap- 
pointment, I found I had to walk sixteen miles; and I walked it, and 
I slept that night with a clear conscience. I want no hackman to 
rise up in judgment against me. My friends, if we want to help the 
Sabbath, let business men and Christians never patronize cars on the 
Sabbath. I would hate to own stock in those horse-car companies, 
to be the means of taking the Sabbath from these men, and have to 
answer for it at the day of judgment. No man can work seven days 
a week and save his soul. And the very best thing we have is being 
taken from these men by us Christians. Are you willing to step 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 4:7 O 

into the balance and be weighed against "Thou shalt keep the Sab- 
bath day holy"? 

Well, there is the fifth: " Honor thy father and mother." Are you 
ready to be weighed against this? Have you honored them? Is 
there anyone here to-night who is dishonoring father or mother? 
Now, I've lived nearly forty years, and I've learned one thing, if I've 
learned nothing else, that no man or woman who treats disrespect- 
fully father or mother ever prospers. How many young ladies have 
married against their father's wishes, and gone off and just made 
their own ruin. I never knew one case that did not turn out bad. 
They brought ruin upon themselves. This is a commandment from 
heaven: "Honor thy father and mother." In the last days, men shall 
be disobedient to parents, void of natural affection; and it seems as 
if we were living in those days now. How many sons treat their 
mothers with contempt, make light of their entreaties. God says, 
" Honor thy father and mother." If the balances were placed in this 
hall woi^d you be ready to step into them against this command- 
ment? You may make light of it and laugh at it; but young men, 
remember that God will hedge your way. No man shall succeed 
that disobeys his commandment. But bear in mind you are not go- 
ing to be weighed only against this solitary commandment — every 
weight will be put in. 

" Thou shalt not kill." Most of you say, " That don't touch me 
at all; I never killed anyone; I'm no murderer." Look at that sermon 
on the Mount, which men think so much of. Look at it. Did you 
never in your heart wish a man dead who had done you an injury? 
That's murder. How are you? Innocent or guilty? If you have, you 
are a murderer at heart. Now come, my friends, are you ready to 
be weighed against the law? Ah, if most of us were weighed to- 
night we would find this word written against us: " Tekel, Thou art 
weighed in the balance and found wanting." 

But let us take another, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." I 
don't know any sin that afflicts us like this. It is a very delicate 
subject to approach; but I never preach without being compelled to 
touch upon it. Young men among us are being bound hand and 
foot with this evil. Young men, hear this law to-night: "Thou shalt 
not commit adultery." Are you guilty even in thought? How many 
would corne into the Tabernacle but that they are tied hand and 
foot, as one who has been in the halls of vice, and some harlot, whose 
feet are fastened in hell, clings to him and says: "If you give me up, 
I will expose you." Can you step on the scales and take that harlot 
with you? "Thou shalt not commit adultery." You may think that 
no one knows your doings; you may think that they are all concealed; 
but God knows it. " He that covers his sins shall not prosper." Out 
with it, to-night. Confess it to your God. Ask him to snap the 
fetters that bind you to this sin; ask him to give you victory over 



476 WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 

your passions. Shake yourself like Samson and say: "By the grace 
of God, I will not go down to hell with a harlot;" and God will give 
you power. " Thou shalt not commit adultery." As I said the 
other night, I don't know a quicker way to hell. Plow many men 
have, by their lecherous life, broken their mothers' heart and gone 
down to their grave rotten, leaving the effect of their sin to their 
posterity? 

Well, let us take up the next. "Thou shalt not steal." How 
many have been stealing to day! I maybe speaking to some clerk, 
who, perhaps to-day, took five cents out of his employer's drawer to 
buy a cigar; perhaps he took ten cents to get a shave, and thinks he 
will put it back to-morrow — no one will ever know it. If you have 
taken a penny, you are a thief. Do you ever think how those little 
stealings may bring you to ruin? Let an employer find it out. If 
he don't take you into the courts, he will discharge you. Your hopes 
will be blasted, and it will be hard work to get up again. Whatever 
condition you are in, do not take a cent that does not belong to you. 
Rather than steal, go up to heaven in poverty — go up to heaven from 
the poor house; and be honest rather than go through the world in a 
gilded chariot of stolen riches. A man who takes money that does 
not belong to him never gets any comfort. He never has any pleas- 
ure, for he has a guilty conscience. "Thou shalt not steal." Are 
you ready to be weighed to-night in the balances? 

Then let us take the ninth commandment: " Thou shalt not bear 
false witness against thy neighbor;" or, in other words, thou shalt not 
be guilty of lying. If you had a chance to make $200 or $3 0, are 
you not willing to go into a court and lie to get it? " Thou shalt not 
bear false witness against thy neighbor." Are you ready to step into 
the balances against this? Then take another. "Thou shalt not 
covet thy neighbor's goods." Are you innocent or guilty? How 
many times I used to covet that which belonged to other people, 
before I was converted. I believe that is one of the greatest sins 
among us. My friends, how is it? innocent or guilty? But suppose 
you are innocent of all these ten commandments; let us take that 
eleventh commandment of Christ's: "A new commandment I give 
unto you; thou shalt love one another." My friends, how is it to- 
night? Is love reigning in your hearts? Do you love your neigh- 
bors? Do you try to do them good; or are you living a life of 
selfishness, merely for yourself? 

Now I can imagine that nearly every man or woman is saying to 
himself or herself : " If we are to be judged by these laws, how are 
we going to be saved?" Every one of them has been broken by all 
people. The moral man is just as guilty as the rest. There is not 
a moralist in Chicago who, if he steps into those scales, can be saved* 
" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
" Except ye repent, ye shall all perish." That is on one side of the 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 477 

scales, and he will see on the other, " Except ye be converted, ye 
shall not enter the kingdom of God." I have heard a good many 
Pharisees saying: " These meetings are reaching the drunkards and 
gamblers and harlots; they are doing good;" but they don't think 
they need these meetings. They are all right; they are moral men. 
u Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
I don't care how moral he is. Nicodemus was probably one of the 
most moral men of his day. He was a teacher of the law; yet Christ 
said: "Except a man be born again, he cannot seethe kingdom of God." 
I would a good deal rather preach to thieves and drunkards and vag- 
abonds, than preach to self-righteous Pharisees. You don't have to 
preach to those men weeks and months to convince them that they 
are sinners. When a man learns that he has need of God, and that 
he is a sinner, it is very easy to reach him. But, my friends, the 
self-righteous Pharisee needs salvation as much as any drunkard that 
walks the streets of Chicago. 

There is another class I want to speak of. If I had time, I would 
just Like to take up the different classes in the city. That class is 
the rum-sellers. Put the rum-sellers in the balances. They ignore 
God's laws; but by and by he will say to them, Tekel: "Woe be to 
the man that puts the bottle to his neighbor's lips." My friends, I 
would rather have that right hand cut off before I would give the 
bottle to a man. I would rather have my right arm cut off than deal 
out death and damnation to my fellow-men. If any poor drunkard 
here should be summoned into eternity to-night, and be weighed in 
the balances, what would he hear? " No drunkard shall inherit the 
kingdom of God." I can see how he would reel and stagger when 
he heard that. " No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven." 

My friends, if you don't repent of your sins and ask him for mercy, 
there is no hope for you. Let me ask you to-night to take this 
question home to yourself. If a summons should come at midnight 
to be weighed in the balances, what will become of your souls, be- 
cause the law of God must be kept. Now there are many of you 
only making professions. You belong to the First Methodist 
Church, or you may be a member of a Baptist church; but are you 
ready to be weighed — ready to step into these scales to-night? I 
think a great many would be found like those five foolish virgins. 
When the hour came, they would be found with no oil in their 
lamps. If there is a person here to-night who has only an empty 
lamp, or is living on mere formalism, I beg of you to give it up. 
Give up that dead, cold, miserable lukewarmness. God will spit it 
out of his mouth; he will have none of it. Wake up. Some of you 
have gone almost to sleep while I have been trying to weigh you in 
the balances. God will weigh you, and then if you have not Christ 
it will be " Tekel." 

I can imagine some of you saying: " I would just like Moody to 



478 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCES. 



put those tests to himself. I wonder what would become of him." 
My dear friends, if God was to ask me to-night I would tell him, " I 
am ready." I don't say this in any spirit of egotism, of self- right- 
eousness, remember. If you ask me if I have broken the law of 
Moses, I would answer, " Yes, sir." Ask me if I have broken the 
commandments, " Yes, sir." You may ask me, then, how I am 
ready to be weighed. If I step into the scales to-night, the son of 
God will step into the scales with me. I would not dare to go into 
them without him. If I did, how quick the scales would go up! If 
a man has not got Christ, when the hour comes for him to be 
weighed, it will be " Tekel, tekel, tekel." How are you to-night, 
my friend — ready to be weighed? (pointing to one of the audience). 

Answer — Yes, sir. 

Mr. Moody — Have you got Christ? 

Answer — Yes, sir. 

Mr. Moody — That's right. Suppose I put the question to every 
man and woman in this audience. How quick many of them would 
begin to color up. Oh, my friends, if you haven't got him, get him 
to-night. May God open your eyes and your minds to receive him 
before you leave this tabernacle to-night. Christ kept the law; 
Christ was the end of the law. If he had broken the law, he would 
have had to die for himself; but he kept it, and we are enabled to 
be clothed in righteousness. My friends, it is the height of madness 
to go out of this hall to-night and run the risk of being called by 
God and have to answer without him. Now is the day and hour to 
accept salvation; and then he will be with us. Then there will be 
no alarm with us. I pity those Christian people who are afraid of 
death. They need not be afraid of death if they have him. When 
he is with us, it is only a translation. We are absent from the body 
to be present with the Lord. Here is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
Will you be saved to-night? If you do not, when by-and-by God 
summons you into these scales, it will be written over you: "Tekel, 
tekel; thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting." 
My friends, what will you do to-night? Remain as you are and be 
lost, or accept salvation and be saved? 



EIGHT "I WILLS" OF CHRIST. 

I want to call your attention to-night to the eight '* I wills" of 
Christ. Now; when we say "I will," very often it don't mean much. 
My friends, I want you to pay attention to the text; 1 see some of 
you looking after Mr. Sankey. (Mr. Sankey moving out.) You 
may forget the songs which have been sung to-night, you may for- 
get the sermon; but if the text gets down to your heart, you will 
never forget it. The eight "I will's" of Christ. I was going to say 
that a man, when he says "I will," may not mean much. We very 
often say "I will," when we don't mean to fulfill what we say; but 
when vie come to the "I will" of Christ, He means to fulfill it. 
Everything he has promised to do he is able and willing to accom- 
plish; and he is going to do it. I cannot find any passage in scripture 
in which he says "I will" do this, or "I will" do that, but it will be 
done. 

The first "I will" I want to call your attention to, occurs in f 
Matthew 11: 28: "Come unto me all ye that labor, and I will give 
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek 
and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my 
yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Now what is it that man 
wants more than rest? What is it that the world is in pursuit of? 
What are all the men in Chicago after, if it isn't rest? What do 
business men toil for, if it isn't for rest? Why do men spend their 
lives in hunting for wealth, if it is not for rest? But my friends, that 
is not the way to get rest. A man cannot find it in wealth; he can- 
not find it in pleasure: Take the pleasure-seekers of Chicago, and 
ask them if they have rest. They are like the waves of the sea, per- 
petually troubled. My friends, the men who are away from God 
never know what rest is. You can see this in their faces, in the 
wrinkles of their brow. They don't know what rest is. What does 
Christ say? "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." It isn't in the market for sale. How 
many men in Chicago would not gladly go up to the Board of Trade 
to-morrow morning, and give thousands for it, if it was for sale? 
They would give thousands of dollars for it, if they could buy it. 
But it ain't for sale. If you get it, you must take it as a gift from 
him who came from heaven to give it. The moment a man is will- 
ing to take it as a gift, it is his. There is one thing I notice: that a 
man goes in every direction, seeks every means, tries every person 
lor rest, before he comes to the true source. He will try to get rest 
479 



480 EIGHT "i WILLS" OF CHRIST. 

in the world; he will try to find honor in pleasure, in politics; but he 
■don't get it. You can't find one of these politicians who knows what 
rest is; you cannot find one of those business men who knows what 
rest is, unless he has Christ. Ask any man who is after the things of 
the world if he really knows what rest is, and he will answer you, "No." 
Ifyou come to Christ, he tells you: "I will" give it. I like this "I will." 
He means it; and if you want rest, go to-night and say you are weary 
and your soul is seeking rest, and he will give it. He will give it 
without price. Take it. " O man, thou hast destroyed thyself, but 
in me is thine help." In him is your help and in him will you find 
rest. If there is a poor, mangled one here, come to Christ to-night 
^ind confess to him. Come to Christ and he will take your burden 
away and put it behind his back, and he will give that weary soul 
rest. Now just test it to-night. Let every one who is weary and 
heavy-laden come to him to-night. 

The next "I will" is in John, 6th chapter: "Him that cometh to 
me I will in no wise cast out." That is as broad as the world itself. 
It takes that man in the gallery yonder; it may be there is a poor, 
afflicted one hidden behind that post, it takes him; it just sweeps 
around this building, taking rich and poor alike. " Him that cometh 
tome I will in no wise cast out." He is so anxious to save sinners, 
He will take every one who comes. He will take those who are so 
full of sin that they are despised by all who know them, who have 
been rejected by their fathers and mothers, who have been cast oft 
by the wives of their bosoms. He will take those who sunk so low 
that upon them no eye of pity is cast. " Him that cometh to me I 
will in nowise cast out." Now, why not take him at his word? I 
remember, a few years ago, a man in Farwell Hall was greatly 
troubled about his soul. " Now," said I, "take that verse; what does 
the Lord mean when he says, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no- 
wise cast out," when he says that, he means it. The man replied, 
*' I will just take him at his word." He started home, and while 
going over the Clark street bridge, something whispered to him: 
"How do you know but that is a wrong translation?" He was just 
laying right hold of it, when this was whispered to him. The poor 
fellow didn't sleep any that night. He was greatly troubled, but at 
last he made up his mind that he would just believe it, and when he 
got to the Lamb of God he would tell him of it, and the devil left 
him. Now, my friends, just take it. Some men say, "I am not 
worthv to come." I never knew a man yet to go to church that was 
worthy. Why, he loes not profess to save worthy men; he saves 
sinners. As a man said in the inquiry-room: He didn't come to save 
make-believe sinners, or painted sinners, but real sinners. A man 
■don't want to draw his filthy rags of self-righteousness about him, 
when he comes to him. The only thing a sinner has that God wants 
is Ms sin. Yon need not bring your tears, your prayers, your good 



EIGHT "I WILLS" OF CHRIST. 481 

works, or deeds; you must come to him as a sinner, and he will 
clothe you in a garment fit to come before him. Now the kings of 
this earth call around them the wealthy and influential men of their 
kingdom; but when Christ came down here, he called the outcasts, 
the publicans, and sinners around him. And that was the principal 
fault the people found with him. Those self-righteous Pharisees 
were not going to associate with harlots and publicans. The princi- 
pal charge against him was, '"This man receiveth sinners and eateth 
with them." Who would have such a man around him as John Bun- 
yan in his time. He, a Bedford tinker, why, he couldn't get inside 
one of the princely castles. I was very much amused when I was 
over on the other side. They had erected a monument to John 
Bunyan, and it was unveiled by lords and dukes and great men. 
Why, while he was on earth they wouldn't allow him inside the walls 
of their castles. Yet he was made one of the mightiest instruments 
in the spread of the gospel. No book that has ever been written comes 
so near the Bible as John Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress." And he 
was a poor Bedford tinker. So it is with God. He picks up some 
poor, lost tramp, and makes him an instrument to turn hundreds and 
thousands to Christ. It is a question whether in all Chicago there is 
a man who is exercising such an influence for good as this man Saw- 
yer. Four years ago he was a tramp; he had been cast off by his 
own mother, by his own sisters, by his wife; and he hadn't seen his 
own son for fifteen years. Then he was a lost man. Cast off by 
f. very one ; but the Son of God stooped low enough to save him. I doubt, 
as 1 said before, whether there is a man who has so much influence as 
that man has to-day. "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast 
out." Is there some poor outcast, some poor tramp, here to-night? 
I've got a good message for you. May be you are hiding away be- 
hind that post; but I've got a good message for you, the best message 
you ever heard: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." 
Come all just as you are; don't wait. He will take you as you sit 
into his loving bosom; he will make you a champion of the cross, and 
you will become an instrument in his hand to build up his kingdom. 
Thank God for such a book; thank God for such a gospel — thank the 
God of heaven for such a text: "Him that cometh to me I will in no 
wise cast out." 

The next "I will" is found in Luke. We are told of a man who -^ 
was full of leprosy; he was just rotten with it. Perhaps his fingers v> 
had rotted off; it might have been that his nose was eaten off. That 
is the way leprosy affects a man. Well, there is a man full of lepro- 
sy, and ho comes to Christ just as he was. A good many people, if 
they had been in his place, would have waited till they got a little 
better before they came before him; but this man wanted to get the 
leprosy away. If he had waited to see if he got better, there would 
hnve been no sense in it. A man might as well, if he had a sick 
31 



4:62 EIGHT " I WILLS" OF CHRIST. 

child, say: "When it gets better, I will send for the doctor." It is 
because your child is sick that you want the doctor. It is because 
this man had the leprosy that he wanted Christ. The leper came to 
him and said: " Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." There 
is faith for you; and the Lord touched him, saying, "I will; be thou 
clean;" and away went the leprosy, as if it had been struck by light- 
ning. I have often wondered if he ever turned around to see where 
it had gone: no doubt, like Naaman, his flesh became as the flesh of 
a little child. He didn't wait to see whether the leprosy would im- 
prove; because he was convinced that it was growing worse and 
worse, every day. So it is with you. You will never have a night 
so favorable for coming to Christ as this one. If you put off till to- 
morrow, your sins will have become more numerous. If you wait 
till Sunday next, a whole week's sins will be built upon those you 
have already. Therefore, the sooner you come, the fewer sins you 
will have to be forgiven. Come to him to-night. If you say to him r 
"Lord, I am full of sin; thou canst make me clean;" " Lord, I have 
a terrible temper; thou canst make me clean;" "Lord, I have a de- 
ceitful heart; cleanse me, O God; give me a new heart. O God. 
give me the power to overcome the flesh, and the snares of the devil!" 
if you come to him with a sincere spirit you will hear the voice, " I — 
will; be thou clean." It will be done. Do you think that the God 
who created the world out of nothing, who by a breath put life into 
the world — do you think that if he says, " Thou wilt be clean," you 
will not? A great many people say, "If I become converted, I am 
afraid I will not hold out." Why, don't you see that we cannot 
serve God with our own strength. When we accept him, he gives 
us strength to serve him. When he has taken away the leprosy of 
sin, it is easy to live for him. And I want to call your attention to 
the fact that even if you are bad, he don't care. It may be that 
some one here has disgraced his or her father or mother; it may be 
that they have disgraced every friend they ever had, and that they 
just despise themselves. Come to him, and he will cleanse you. It 
is to you I am speaking to-night. He can save you to the uttermost. 
The next " I will" I want to call your attention to is the " I will" 
\)£ of confession, in Matthew. "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me 
before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in 
heaven." Let me say, right here, that this is the very verse up to 
which men in Chicago will have to come. Men come to me and 
say: " Do you mean to affirm, Mr. Moody, that I've got to make, a 
public confession when I accept Christ; do you mean to say I've got 
to confess him in my place of business, and in my family? Am J to 
let the whole world know that I am on his side?" A great many 
are willing to accept Christ; but they are not willing to publish it, 
to confess it. A great many are looking at the lions and the bears 
in the mountains. Now, my friends, the devil's mountains are onlyv 



OF CHRIST. 483 

* made of smoke. Why, he can throw a straw into your path and 
make a mountain of it. He says to you: "You cannot confess and 
pray to your family; why, you'll break down. You cannot tell it to 
your shopmate; he will laugh at you." But when you accept him 
3'ou will have power to confess him. He has said: " If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and fol- 
low me." It is the way to heaven — by the way of the cross; and I 
believe in my soul that more men are stumbling upon this verse 
than upon any other. They are willing to do everything necessary 
except take up the cross and follow him. Now, let me read this 
verse again: " Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, 
him will I confess also before my father, which is in heaven." When 
I was in London there was a leading doctor in that city, upwards of 
seventy years of age, who wrote me a note to come and see him pri- 
vately about his soul. He was living at a country seat, a little way 
out of London, and he only came into town two or three times a 
week. He was wealthy, and was nearly retired. I received the note 
right in the midst of the London work, and told him I could not 
see him. I received a note a day or two after from a member 
of his family, urging me to come. The letter said his wife had 
been praying for him for fifty years, and all the children had be- 
come Christians by her prayers. She had prayed for him all 
those years, but no impression had been made upon him. Upon 
his desk they had found the letter from me, and they came up to 
London to see what it meant; and I said I would see him. When 
we met, I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian, and he 
seemed every way willing; but when it came to confession to his 
family, he halted. " I tell you," said he, " I cannot do that; my 
life has been such that I would not like to confess before my 
family." "Now there is the point; if you are not willing to con- 
fess Christ, he will not confess you; you cannot be his disciple." 
We talked for some time, and he accepted. I found that, while 
I had been in one room, the daughter and some friends, anxious for 
the salvation of that aged parent, were in the other room praying to 
God; and when he started out, willing to go home and confess 
Christ, I opened the door of the other room, not knowing the daugh- 
ter was there. And the first words she said were, " Is my father 
saved?" " Yes, I think he is," I answered; and ran down to the 
front door and called him back. " Your daughter is here," I said ; 
" this is the time to commence your confession." The father, with 
tears trickling down his cheeks, embraced his child. "My dear 
daughter, I have accepted Christ;" and a great flood of light broke 
upon him at that confession. A great many here in Chicago are 
ashamed to come out and take their stand for Christ. If you want 
peace and joy, my friends, you must be willing to confess. I am 
told that, in China, the height of a Chinaman's ambition is to have 



484 EIGHT "I WILLS" OF CHRIST. 

his name put in the house of Confucius. He must have performed 
some great act of valor, or done the State some great service, before 
he can have his name there. That is the highest point of a China- 
man's ambition. It ought to be the height of our ambition to have 
our name registered in heaven, and have Christ to confess us in the 
courts of heaven. How excited we used to be during the war when 
some general did something extraordinary, and some one got up in 
Congress to confess his exploits; how the papers used to talk about 
it! If we come out for Christ here, he will confess us in heaven be- 
fore the throne and the angels. May God help you to confess him 
to-night. 

Another " I will" — to me a very precious "I will " — was given to 
those early fishermen. He said, " If you will follow me, I will make 
you fishers of men." That is the " 1 will " of service. I pity those 
Christians from the very depth of my heart, who have only made a 
profession of religion, and stopped there. My friends, they don't 
nave the joy of salvation. I tell you, the only happy Christians are 
those who are fishers of men. If a man be a true Christian, he wins 
souls. He cannot help it; for He says: "If you will follow me, I 
will make you fishers of men. Peter caught more men at Pentecost 
than he ever caught fish in his nets. I have often thought of the 
remark one of the disciples made to Him as they were standing to- 
gether one day: "Lord, we have left all to follow thee." What did 
they leave? A few old fishing boats and broken nets. They were 
looking to those tilings they had left behind; and a great many peo- 
ple here are looking to what they will leave, if they serve him. It 
is not necessary to leave the things of this life when you follow him. 
It is not necessary to give up your business, if it's a legitimate one, 
in order to accept Christ. But you mustn't set your heart on the old 
nets, by a good deal. Now, my friend, if you want to be a religious 
Christian, follow him fully. No man follows Christ and ever regrets 
it; and the nearer we get to him the more useful we become. Then 
we will save men. It seems to me, after I am dead and gone, I 
would rather have a man to come to my grave and drop a tear and 
say: " Here lies the man who converted me, who brought me to the 
cross of Christ " — it seems to me I would rather have this than a col- 
umn of pure gold reaching to the skies, built in my honor. If a man 
wants to be useful, follow Him. You will succeed, if you follow him. 
Whenever you find a man who follows Christ, that man you will find 
a successful one. He don't need to be a preacher, he don't need to 
be an evangelist, to be useful. He may be useful in business. See 
what power an employer has, if he likes. How he could labor with 
his employes, and in his business relations. Often a man can be far 
more useful in a business sphere than he could in another. If we 
want to spend a life of usefulness, accept him, and He will make you 
"fishers of men." Young man, don't you want to win souls to 



OF CHRIST. 485 

Christ? Well, then, just follow him. " You follow me, and I will 
make you fishers of men." / 

The next " I will," a very precious one, is, "I will not leave you 
comfortless," down here in this dark woild. Now, some people think 
they have a very hard battle before them when they accept him. A 
lady came to me lately and said: "I am the only one of my family 
who is a Christian; and I feel lonely." " Why," said I, "Christ is 
with you; if you have got an elder brother sitting at the right hand of 
God, what more do you want?" Oh, this precious "I will;" this 
comfort and joy, "I will be with you to the end of the world;" " I 
will never forsake you." You may take comfort to-night. He will 
be with you always. You may not see him with the eye of flesh; 
but you will see him by the eye of faith. 

The next "I will" is found in the 4th chapter of John: "I will ^7 
raise him up at the last day." These bodies of ours are going down ; 
to the grave; but they are not going to lie there long: the Son of 
God will wake them up. When he was here he raised up three bod- 
ies; and let me say to you, young children, that the first one he 
raised was a little child. Ah, there will be many little children 
there, " for of such is the kingdom of heaven." He gave us three 
instances. The first was the little girl. When the people heard 
he had raised up some one from the dead, they thought it was a mis- 
take. She wasn't dead, but only asleep; it wasn't a real miracle. 
The next one was a young man. " Oh, no," they thought, " that's 
no miracle; if they had left him alone, he'd have awoke; he was only 
asleep." But the next case that came along was that of Lazarus; 
and Matthew tells us that he had been dead four days; he had been 
laid away in the sepulcher, and the Son of God merely said, " Laza- 
rus, come forth." Now, I like a religion that gives me such comfort, 
that when I lay away my loved ones in the grave I know they will 
by and by hear the voice of the Son of God calling them forth. I 
used to wonder, how Christians had so much comfort in affliction, 
and used to question whether I could have as much; but I have 
learned that God gives us comfort when we need it. A few weeks 
ago I stood at the grave of a man I loved more than any one on 
earth, except my wife and family. As he was laid down in the nar- 
row bed and the earth dropped upon the coffin-lid, it seemed as if a 
voice came to me, saying, u He will rise again." 1 like a religion 
by which we can go to the grave of our loved ones and feel that they 
will rise again; I like a religion that tells us, although we sow them in 
corruption they will rise incorruptible; that although we sow them 
in weakness they will rise in power and glory, and ascend to the 
kingdom of light. This is the comfort for Christians. Thank God for 
this, ,l I will not leave you comfortless." 

" I will that they may be with me" is the sweetest of all. The Q 
thought that I will see him in his beauty; the thought that I will v 



486 THE GOSPEL PREACHES. 

meet him there, that I will spend eternity with him, is the sweetest 
of them all. This last week we had Thanksgiving day. How many 
families gathered together, perhaps the first time in many years; and 
the thought would come stealing over some of them, Who will be 
the. first to break the circle? Perhaps many of these circles of 
friends will never meet again. Thank God, yonder the circles shall 
never be broken — when the fathers and mothers and children gather 
around him in those mansions into which death never enters, where 
sickness and sorrow never enter through yon pearly gates. Oh, 
thank God for this blessed religion; thank God for the blessed 
Christ; thank God for those blessed eight "I wills." "Come unto me 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;" 
"Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out;" "Whoso- 
ever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess also 
before my Father which is in heaven;" " Jf you will follow me, I will 
make you fishers of men;" " I will, be thou clean;" " I will not leave 
you comfortless;" " I will that they may be with me." May God 
bless every soul in this building to-night, and bring you to the cross. 



THE GOSPEL PREACHER. 

" And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias, and when he had opened 
the hook he found the place where it was written : The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because 
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken- 
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to pet at 
liberty them that are braised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the 
book, and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that 
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is 
the Scripture fulfilled in your ears." Luke 4: 17-21. 

I am going to ask our friends if they will please turn in their Bibles 
to the 4th chapter of Luke, and the 17th verse: " And there was de- 
livered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had 
opened the book he found the place where it was written: The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the 
gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, 
to set at liberty them that are bound; to preach the acceptable year 
of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the 
minister and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in the 
synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, 



THE GOSPEL PREACHER. 487 

This clay is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears." I suppose our friends 
have noticed, in reading the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, that never 
when he was down on earth do we read about him taking a copy of * 
the Scriptures in his hands except in this synagogue. I have no V 
doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ knew the Scriptures from beginning 
to end, so that he did not require to take them up to find a passage. J 
Here, for the first and for the last time, do we read about him taking ! 
them in his hands. It was a prophecy he took up, and that prophecy 
was the book of Isaiah. We are told in Luke that the Lord Jesus 
Christ found a certain place. I suppose that means that he searched 
for a certain passage of Scripture which declared his mission to the » 
children of men. He might have preached from any single text in 
that wonderful book. If he had liked, he could have told his mes- 
sage without any reference to that wonderful book; but he turned to 
the place and read: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he 
hath anointed me to preach the gospel; he hath sent me to heal the 
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering 
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." You 
know that eighteen hundred years ago books were not printed as 
they are to-day. These books were written on parchment and put on 
rollers, and the Lord Jesus Christ had to unroll these parchments be- 
fore he came to the passage, saying, " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
me." I have often tried to imagine what thoughts passed through 
his mind as his blessed eye rested upon passage after passage of that 
book. He might have pointed to that passage: "1 have nourished * 
and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The 
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth 
not know:" but the Lord passed that by. He might have turned to 
a passage in the same chapter: "From the sole of the foot even unto 
the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and 
putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither 
molified with ointment;" but he passed that by. He might have 
turned to that wonderful passage in the ninth chapter: " For unto us 
a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be 
upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsel- 
lor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace;" 
but Jesus passed that by. He did not want to read about the divin- 
ity; he came into that synagogue to read about the mission to sin- 
ners, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." He might have read 
that sweet passage: "Though thou wert angry with me, thine anger 
is turned away, and thou comfortest me." Jesus didn't need that — 
the cross had not yet had its victim. He might have turned to that 
sweet 32d chapter: And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the 
wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, 
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land;" but he just passed 
that by. He ought to have opened the book at that 35th chapter, 



488 THE GOSPEL PREACHER. 

where it speaks about water breaking out in the wilderness and the 
desert blooming; but the millennium had not come yet. Without 
Calvary, there could be no millennium. So he turned to the passage 
which says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." 1 wonder how 
those men would have felt had he read: "He was despised and re- 
jected of men; a man of sorrows." He did not tell them how they 
treated him; he merely turned to the passage which spoke of his mis- 
sion. 

And in that synagogue, on that Sabbath day, beloved friends, there 
f was not a human heart any different from yours. They loved to hear 
I good news or glad tidings; and I am sure there is not one here to- 
night, rich or poor, high or low, but likes to hear glad tidings. In 
Ireland, a man used to live opposite to where I was living, and when 
a man would come from the market with something that had been 
ordered he would ring the bell, and stand waiting for five or six min- 
utes before any servant would come to the door. Sometimes ladies 
and gentlemen would come up and stand waiting for the door to be 
opened. But I always noticed one thing: whenever the postman 
would come and give his double knock, that moment three or four 
of them would come to the door. Sometimes the master and mistress 
of the house themselves would run to the door, to get what they 
thought good news. You know you never keep the postman at the 
door. Everybody is fond of good news, of glad tidings. Previous 
to my coming across to this great country of yours, I was holding 
meetings in London. I took my ticket from there to Manchester, to 
bid some friends good-bye. When I got to the railway carriage, I 
saw a little group of boys around two little fellows. Their coats were 
threadbare, with patches here and there carefully covering up the 
holes. Some good mother, it was evident, too poor to send them 
away in fine style, was trying to make them as neat as she could. 
The boys belonged to a Sunday-school in London, and the group 
around them was their schoolmates, who had come down to bid them 
good-bye. They shook hands, and then their Sunday-school teacher 
did the same, and wished them Godspeed. After that their minis- 
ter came and took them by the hand, and breathed a prayer that 
they would be blessed. When they all had bade the boys good-bye, 
a poor widow came up and put her arms around the companion of her 
son. Perhaps he had no mother, and she kissed him for his mother 
and wished him good-bye. Then she put her arms around the neck 
of the other boy, and he put his arms around her, and she began to 
weep. "Don't cry, mother," said the boy; "don't cry; I'll soon be 
in America, and I'll save money, and soon send for you to come out 
to me. I'll have you out with me. Don't cry." He stepped into 
the carriage, the steam was turned on, and the train was in motion 
when he put his head out of the window and cried, "Farewell, dear 
mother;" and the mother's prayer went out: "God bless my boy; 



THE GOSPEL PREACHER. 489 

God bless my boy." Don't you think that when they came to Amer- 
ica and sent the first letter to England, that mother would ran quick- 
ly to the door when the postman came with that letter? How quick 
that mother would take that letter and break the seal. She wants 
to hear good news. There is not one here to-night who has not a 
message of good news, of glad tidings; better news than was ever 
received by a mother in England from a son in America, or from a 
mother in England by a son in America. It is glad tidings from a 
loving Savior; glad tidings of great joy. He says, " The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me," to preach good news. That is what brought the 
Savior down from glory— to preach glad tidings. 

But, mark you, it is to the poor — not the poor in pocket. God 
never looks into a bank-book; he never looks into your purse, to 
see whether you are rich or poor; he looks into the sinner's heart, 
and if that sinner has nothing — no deeds, no prayers, no tears, then 
the Son of God comes from heaven to that poor soul. "The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the 
gospel to the poor." On Friday night, in a certain place where 1 
was, two or three ladies were talking about the Bible. One lady 
said to another: "I saw some of my friends reading the Bible, and 
they were looking so glum and melancholy." Turning round to me 
she said: " I don't think people should be melancholy when they 
read the Bible; do you, Mr. Moody?" " Well," J replied, "it de- 
pends upon the kind of people who read the Bible; if they are un- 
saved sinners, they will." "But," she asked, "tell me why." "Be- 
cause that book is the death-warrant of an unsaved sinner; but if a , 
man knows that he is lost, that he is guilty and condemned, and he 
comes to the Savior, then the Bible is not a death-warrant." It is a 
reprieve — it is a pardon — it is good news, glad tidings. Every man 
here to-night who is unsaved, ought to be sad when he reads his 
death-warrant; and that is the reason why people unsaved do not 
like to read this book. When we believe, we hear the good news 
that comes to us in the cry from Calvary, "It is finished!" That is 
not bad news — that is not our death-warrant — that is my pardon — 
that is my peace — my justification. Jesus finished that work, and 
he finished that work for me. It is good news and orlad tidino-s to 
the sinner; and there is not a little child in this hall to-night but can 
understand it, if they take it as God gives it in this book. It is not / 
long ago, it just seems the other day, when my dear friend Dr. V 
Mathieson, now in heaven, told me he was preaching the gospel in 
Scotland, and a minister told him he had in his congregation a little 
idiot boy. He did not know what to do with him; he had spoken to 
him many times, but the boy always said: "Ye maun wait till a' 
come to ye, and when a' come I'll sing ye a sang an' tell ye a story; 
but ye maun wait till a' come to ye." The minister heard that the 
boy was dying, and he went to him and said: "Sandy, you promised 



490 THE GOSPEL PREACHER. 

me that you would sing me a song* and tell me a story before you 
died; will you tell it now?" "Yes, minister," replied the boy — 
"Three in ane an' ane in three, an' Jesus Christ he died for me; 
that's a'." " Three in one and one in three, and Jesus Christ he 
died for me." I tell you I would rather be a poor idiot and know 
that, than be one of the mightiest and so-called wisest men in the 
city of Chicago, and not believe that Jesus took my place and died 
for me on Calvary's cross. That gospel's very simple; it is very easy 
to understand. Here am I, a poor sinner, and God has said, u The 
soul that sinneth shall die;" but God so loved that sinner that he 
don't want him to die. He had a Son whom he sent from heaven to 
Calvary to die on the cross, on purpose to put away our sin. Now, 
I believe; and my sins are put away, and I am saved. Do you want 
to be saved to-night? Jesus' blood was shed for you; he put away 
sin by the sacrifice of himself. What must I do to be saved? Believe. 
How can believing save me? Jesus died to save. It is not my be- 
lieving that puts away my sin; it is my belief that accepts Christ as 
my Savior, and the moment I believe on him, I know that eighteen 
hundred years ago he bled and died on purpose to give me everlast- 
ing life. How can I know that I can be saved to-night? That dear 
young man in the gallery 3>-onder — " Can 1 know I can be saved to- 
night?" Yes. That dear mother over there — " Can I know I can 
be saved to-night?" Yes. That dear father here — "Can I know I 
•can be saved to-night?" Yes, before you leave your seat and go 
into the inquiry-room, if you believe he took your place and sent the 
message to you. On Thanksgiving night there was a young lady 
in the inquiry -room, who came to me, "Oh," said she, "will you 
tell me what you mean by knowing that you are saved?" She said 
she was a member of a church and loved the Savior, but didn't 
know that she was saved. " Will you come and sit down here and 
open your Bible at the 5th chapter of St. John, and read the 24th 
verse?" She turned and read: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he 
that heareth my word and believeth in him that sent me" — "Now, I 
spell the next word, 'H-a-t-h' — that's not hope," I said; " that's hath." 
And she turned to me, a smile lighting up her face through her tears, 
and said: "That is to have everlasting life" "Are you saved 
now?" I asked. "Yes." " How do you know?" " Because," she 
replied, "I said so; that is how I know." We tell you to-night, in the 
Master's name, you can be saved here if you are guilty — if you have 
nothing to ; ive to God; for he came to prea.ch the gospel to 
the poor. Some of you say: " Mustn't I repent for a week or two; 
must I not try and get some of the sin taken from me, and then go 
to the Lord; and when he sees I desire to be better, it will be easier?" 
My friends, you can't improve yourselves. He wants to take you 
just as you are. 

When I was holding meetings a little time ago at Wharnecliffc, in 



THE GOSPEL PREACHER. 491 

England, a coal district, a great burly collier came up to me and 
said in his Yorkshire dialect, " Dost know wha was at meetin' 
t'night?" "No," T answered. "Why," said he, " So-an-so (men- 
tioning name). The name was a familiar one. He was a very bad 
man, one of the wildest, wickedest men in Yorkshire, according to 
his own confession, aud according to the confession of everybody 
who knew him. " Weel," said the man, "he cam' into meetin' an* 
said you didn't preach right; he said thou preached nothm' but love 
o' Christ, an' that won't do for drunken colliers; ye want t' shake 'em 
over the pit, and he says he'll ne'er come again." He thought I 
didn't preach about hell. Mark you, my friends, I believe in eternal 
damnation; I believe in the pit that burns, in the fire that's never 
quenched, in the worm that never dies; but I believe that the mag- 
net that goes down to the bottom of the pit is the love of Jesus. I 
didn't expect to see him again; but he came the next night, without 
washing his face, right from the pit, with all his working clothes 
upon him. This drunken collier sat down on one of the seats that 
were used for the children, and got as near to me as possible. The 
sermon was love from first to last. He listened, at first attentively; 
but by-and-by I saw him with the sleeve of his rough coat, wiping 
his eyes. Soon after, we had an inquiry meeting, when some of those 
praying colliers got around him, and it wasn't long before he was 
crying: "O Lord, save me; I am lost; Jesus have mercy upon me;" 
and that night he left the meeting a new creature. His wife told me 
herself what occurred when he came home. His little children heard 
him coming along; they knew the step of his heavy clogs, and ran 
to their mother in terror, clinging to her skirts. He opened the door 
as gently as could be. He had had a habit of banging the door. / 
My friends, if a man becomes converted, it will even make a ditfer-'| ( / 
ence in the slamming of doors. When he came into the house 
and saw the children clinging to their mother, frightened, he just 
stooped down and picked up the youngest girl in his arms, and 
looked at her, the tears rolling down his cheeks. " Mary, Mary, God 
has sent thy father home to thee," and kissed her. He picked up 
another, "God has sent thy father home;" and irom one to another 
he went, and kissed them all, and then came to his wife and put his 
arms around his neck; "Don't cry, lass; don't cry. God has sent thy 
husband home at last; don't cry;" and all she could do was to put 
her arms around his neck and sob. And then he said: " Have you 
a Bible in the house, lass?" They hadn't such a thing. " Well, lass, 
if we haven't we must pray." They got down on their knees, and 
all he could say was: 

" Genlle Jesus, meek and mild, 
Look upon a little child; 
Pity my simplicity — 

for Jesus Christ's sake, amen." It was a simple prayer, but God 



492 THEIR EOCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 

answered it. While I was at Barnet, sometime after that, a friend 
came to me and said: "I've got good news for you. So-and-so 
(mentioning the collier's name) is preaching the gospel everywhere he 
goes — in the pit and out of the pit, and tries to win everybody to 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 ' brother and sister, won't you trust the 
Savior to-night? Dear mother and father, won't you believe the 
gospel; won't you rest upon that finished work; won't you give up 
your doings and strivings, and just like a little child rest upon that 
Savior? Believe the glorious gospel, and have everlasting life. May 
God bless you all, for Jesus Christ s sake. Amen. 



"THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK." 

"For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.'" Deo- 

TERONOMY 32 : 31. 

I want to call your attention to-night to a text which you will find 
in the 32d chapter of Deuteronomy and the 31st verse: "For their 
rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." 
I wish that this audience for about thirty minutes would just imag- 
ine they are sitting in judgment — that each one is sitting upon the 
case brought up. We want every man, woman and child in this 
building to decide the question brought before them: "For their 
rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." 
This was uttered by Moses, in his farewell address to Israel. He had 
been with them forty years, day and night. He had been the king, 
or president, or judge, or whatever you may call it; he had been 
their leader or instructor; in other words, he had been a god to them, 
for all the blessings of heaven came through him. And the old man 
was about leaving them. He had taken them to the borders of the 
promised land; and all who had left Egypt with him, but Joshua 
and Caleb, had been laid in that wilderness. Now he is making his 
farewell address; and young man, if you have never read it, read it 
to-night. It is the best sermon in print. I do not know any other 
sermon in the New or Old Testament that compares with it. His 
natural activity hadn't abated; he had still the vigor of youth. I can 
see him as he delivers it: his long white hair flowing over his shoul- 
ders, and his venerable beard covering his breast, as he gives them 
the wholesome instruction. Now, I want every one to wake up here. 
I see one young man over there who has just gone to sleep. All 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 493 

you young men will help me, if you see any one next yoa going to 
sleep, by pinching his elbow. We don't want any one here to sleep. 
I remember, when I was in Boston, I fell asleep m church; and a 
man just pinched me, and I rubbed my eyes and woke up. I looked 
at the minister; and lo, and behold, I thought he was preaching di- 
rectly at me. It seemed as if he knew all about my faults, and my 
disposition, and everything about me. I never felt so cheap in my 
life. All his remarks seemed to be directed to me, and I wondered 
who had been telling that minister about me. At the conclusion of 
the sermon, I pulled my coat-collar up and got out as quick as I 
could. Now bear in mind, you men who have gone to sleep are the 
very men I want to speak to. But let us go back to the subject. 
The old man was giving his farewell address, in which he said: "This 
rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." 
Now I am not going to call upon Christians to settle this question, 
but the ungodly, the unconverted, must decide this question; and 
if you be fair with the argument you will have to admit that " Your 
rock is not as our rock;" your peace is not as our peace; because we 
have got our feet on the rock of Jesus. 

You know, in the first place, that the atheist does not believe in 
any God. He denies the existence of a God. Now, I contend that 
his rock is not as our rock, and will let those atheists be the judges. 
What does an atheist look forward to? Nothing. He is taking a 
very crooked path in this world. His life has been dark; it has been 
full of disappointments. When he was a young man, ambition beck- 
oned him on to a certain height. He has attained to that height; 
but he is not satisfied. He climbs a little higher, and perhaps he 
has got as far as he can get; but he is not contented. He is dissat- 
isfied; and if he takes a look into the future, he sees nothing. Man's 
life is full of trouble. Afflictions are as numerous as the hairs of 
our head; but when the billows of affliction are rising and rolling 
over him, he has no God to call upon. Therefore, I contend, his 
" rock is not as our rock." Look at him. He has a child. That 
atheist has all the natural affection for that child possible. He has a 
son, a noble young man, who starts out in life full of promise; but 
he goes astray. He has not the will-power of his father, and cannot 
resist the temptations of the world. That father cannot call upon 
God to save his son. He sees that son go down to ruin, step by step; 
and by-and-by he plunges into a hopeless, Godless, Christless grave. 
And as that father looks into that grave, he has no hope. His " rock 
is not as our rock." Look at him again. He has a child laid low 
with fever, racked with pain ar.d torture; but the poor atheist can- 
not offer any consolation to that child. As he stands by the bedside 
of that child, she says: " Father, I am dying; in a little while I will 
go into another world. What is going to become of me? Am I 
going to die like a dumb beast? " " Yes," the poor atheist says, " I 



41)4 THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 

love you, my daughter; but you will soon be in the grave, and eaten 
up with the worms; and that will be all. There is no heaven, no 
hereafter; it is all a myth. People have been telling you there is a 
hereafter; but they have been deluding you." Did you ever hear 
an atheist going to his dying children and telling them this? My 
friends, when the hour of affliction comes, they call in a minister to 
give consolation. Why don't the atheist preach no hereafter, no 
heaven, no God, in the hour of affliction? This very fact is an ad- 
mission that " their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies them- 
selves being the judges." But look again. That little child dies, 
and that atheist father follows the body to the grave, and lays it 
down in its resting-place, and says: " All that is left of my child is 
there; it will soon become the companion of worms, who will feed 
upon it. That is all there is." Why, the poor man's heart is broken, 
and he will admit his " rock is not as our rock." A prominent athe- 
ist went to the grave with the body of his friend. He pronounced a 
eulogy, and committed all that was left of his friend to the winds, to 
nature, and bade the remains farewell forever. Oh, my friends, had 
he any consolation then? His "rock" was "not as our rock." 

A good many years ago there was a convention held in France, and 
those who held it wanted to get the country to deny a God, and to 
burn the Bible; they wanted to say that a man passed away like a 
dog, like a dumb animal. What was the result? Not long after, 
that country was filled with blood. Did you ever think what would 
take place if we could vote the Bible, and the ministers of the gos- 
pel, and God, out from among the people? My friends, the countrv 
would be deluged with blood. Your life and mine would not be safe 
in this city to-night. We could not walk through those streets with 
safety. We don't know how much we owe God and the influence 
of his gospel among even ungodly men. 1 can imagine some of you 
saying: " Why this talk about atheists? There are none here." 
Well, I hope there isn't; but I find a great number who come into 
the inquiry-rooms, just to look on, who confess they don't believe in 
any God, or any hereafter. 

But there is another class called deists, who, you know, don't be- 
lieve in revelation, who don't believe in Jesus Christ. Ask a deist 
who is God. "Well," he will say, "He is the beginning; he who 
caused all things." These deists say there is no use to pray, be- 
cause nothing can change the degrees of their deity; God never an- 
swers prayer. " Their rock is not as our rock." In the hour of af- 
fliction, they too send off for some Christian to administer consola- 
tion. But there is another class. They say: " I am no deist; I am 
a pantheist; I believe that God is in the air; he is in the sun, the 
stars, in the rain, in the water." They say God is in this wood. 
Why, a pantheist the other night told me God was in that post; he 
was in the floor. When we come to talk to those pantheists, we find 



THEIR ROCK IS XOT AS OUR ROCK. 495 

them no better than the deists and atheists. There was one of 
that sort that Sir Isaac Newton went to talk to. He used to argue 
with him, and try to get the pantheist into his belief; but he couldn't. 
In the hour of his distress, however, he cried out to the God of Sir 
Isaac Newton. Why don't they cry to their God in the hour of their 
trouble? When I used to be in this city, I used to be called on to 
attend a good many funerals. I would inquire what the man was in 
his belief. If I found out he was an atheist, or a deist, or a pan- 
theist, when I would go to the funeral and in the presence of his 
friends said one word about that man's doctrine, they would feel in- 
sulted. Why is it that, in a trying hour, when they have been talk- 
ing all the time against God — why is it that, in the darkness of 
affliction, they call in believers in that God to administer consola- 
tion? 

The next class 1 want to call attention to is the infidel. I contend 
his " rock" is not as our "rock." Look at an infidel. An infidel is 
one who don't believe in inspiration of the Scripture. These 
men are very numerous, and they feel insulted when we call them 
infidels; but the man who don't believe in the inspiration of Scrip- 
ture is an infidel. A good many of them are in the church, and not 
a few of them have crept into the pulpit. These men would feel 
insulted if we called them infidels; but if a man says — I don't care 
who he is, or where he preaches — if he tries to say that the Bible is 
not inspired, from back to back, he is an infidel. "That is their true 
name, although they don't like to be called that. Now in that 
blessed book there are five hundred or six hundred prophecies, and 
every one of them has been fulfilled to the letter; and yet men say 
they cannot believe the Bible is inspired. As I said the other night, 
those who cannot believe it have never read it. I hear a great many 
infidels talk against the Bible; but I haven't found the first man 
who ever read the Bible from back to back carefully and remained 
an infidel. My friends, the Bible of our mothers and fathers is true. 
How many men have said to me: "Mr. Moody, I would give the 
world if I had your faith, your consolation, the hope you have from 
your religion." Is not that a proof that "their rock is not as our 
rock"? Now look at these prophecies in regard to Nineveh, in re- 
gard to Babylon, to Egypt, to the Jewish nation, and see how liter- 
ally they have been fulfilled to the letter. Every promise God 
makes, he carries out. But although infidels prefer their disbelief 
in the inspiration of Scripture, they do not believe in their hearts 
what they declare, else why, when we talk with them, if they have 
any children, do they send them out of the room? Now, not long 
ago, I went into a man's house; and when I commenced to talk 
about religion he turned to his daughter and said: "You had better 
fro but of the room; I want to say a few words to Mr. Moody." 
When she had gone, he opened a perfect torrent of infidelity upon 



496 THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 

me. "Why," said I, " did you send your daughter out of the room 
before you said this?" "TV ell," he replied, " I did not think it would 
do her any good to hear what I said." My friends, his "rock is not 
as our rock." Why did he send his daughter ouc of the room, if he 
believed what he said? It was because he did not believe it. Why, 
if I believed in infidelity, I would wish my daughters and my sons, 
my wife, and all belonging to me, sharers in the same belief. I would 
preach it wherever I went. But they doubt what they advocate. 
If they believed it down in their souls, why, when their daughters 
die, do they send for a true Christian to administer consolation? 
Why don't they send for some follower of Voltaire, or Hume, or 
Paine? Why, when they make their last will, do they send for some 
Christian to carry it out? My friends, it is because their rock has no 
foundation; it is because in the hour of adversity, in spite of all their 
boasts of the grandeur of infidelity, they cannot trust their infidel 
friends. "Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies them- 
selves being judges." 

Now, did you ever hear of a Christian in his dying hour recant- 
ing? You never did. Did you ever hear of Christians regretting 
that they had accepted Christianity, and in their dying hour embracing 
infidelity? I would like to see the man who could stand and say he 
had. But how many times have Christians been called to the bedside 
of an Atheist, or Deist, or Infidel in his dying hours, and heaid him 
crying for mercy? In that hour infidelity is gone; and he wants the 
God of his father and mother to take the place of his black infidelity. 
It is said of West, an eminent man, that he was going to take up the 
doctrine of the resurrection, and show the world what a fraud it was, 
while Lord Lyttleton was going to take up the conversion of Saul, 
and just show the folly of it. These men were going to annihilate 
that doctrine, and that incident of the gospel. They were going to 
emulate the Frenchman, who said it took twelve fishermen to build 
up Christ's religion, but one Frenchman pulled it down. From Cal- 
vary this doctrine rolled along the stream of time, through the 
eighteen hundred years, down to us, and West got at it and began to 
look at the evidence; but, instead of being able to cope with it, he 
found it perfectly overwhelming — the proof that Christ had risen, 
that he had come out of the sepulchre, and ascended to heaven and 
led captivity captive. The light dawned upon him; and he became 
an expounder of the Word of God, and a champion of Christianity. 
And Lord Lyttleton, that infidel and skeptic, hadn't been long at 
the conversion of Saul before the God of Saul broke upon his sight, 
and he too began to preach. I don't believe there is a man in the 
audience who, if he will take his Bible and read it, but will be con- 
vinced of its truth. 

What does infidelity do for a man? " Why," said a dying infidel, 
'<■ \f v principles have lost me my friends; my principles have sent my 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 497 

wife to her grave with a broken heart; they have made my children 
beggars; and I go down to my grave without peace or consolation." 
I never heard of an infidel going down to his grave happily. But 
not only do they go on without peace, but how many youths do they 
turn away from God? How many young men are turned away from 
Christ by these infidels and devils? Let them remember that God 
will hold them responsible, if they are guilty of turning men away 
from heaven. A few infidels gathered around a dying friend lately, 
and they wanted him to hold on to the end, to die like a man. They 
were trying to cheer him, but the poor infidel turned to them: "Ah," 
said he, "what have I got to hold on to?" My friends, let me ask 
you what you have got to hold on to? Every Christian has Christ 
to hold on to — the resurrected man. "I am he that liveth and was 
dead; and behold I am alive for evermore." Thank God, we have 
some one to carry us through all our trials. But what has the Infi- 
nel, only the shell. How many men are there in Chicago who are 
His gods are false gods. They are like the false gods of the Hebrews; 
they never hear their cry. Whereas, if we have the God of Daniel, of 
Abraham, he is always ready to succor us when in distress; and we 
can make him our fortress, and we have a refuge in the storm of ad- 
versity. There we can anchor safely, free from danger and disaster. 
I was reading to-night almost the last words of Lord Byron, and I 
want to draw a comparison between the sorrowful words of Byron 
and those of Saint Paul. He died very young — he was only thirty- 
six — after leading an ungodly life. 

" My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The flower and fruit of life are gone ; 
The worm, the canker and the grief 

Are mine alone." 

Compare those words with the words of St. Paul: " I have fought 
a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. 
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." What a 
contrast! What a difference! My friends, there is as much differ- 
ence between them as there is between heaven and hell, between 
death and life. Be judges which is the most glorious — atheism, de- 
ism, infidelity, or the Christianity of St. Paul. May God take all 
these isms and sweep them from the world. 

I want to read to you a letter which I received some time ago. I 
read this to you because I am getting letters from infidels, who say 
that not an infidel has repented during our meetings. Only about 
ten days ago I got a letter from an infidel, who accused me of being 
a liar. He said there had not been an infidel converted during our 
meetings. My friends, go up to the young converts' meeting any 
Monday night; and you will sec there ten or twelve every night, who 



498 THEIR HOCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 

have accepted Christ. Why, nearly every night we meet with a 
poor infidel who accepts Christ. But let me read this letter. We 
get many letters every day for prayer; and, my friends, you don't 
know the stories that lie behind those letters. The letter I am about 
to read was not received here, but while we were in Philadelphia. 
When I received it, I put it away, intending to use it at a future 
day: 

" Dear Sir: Allow me the privilege of addressing you with a 
few words. The cause of writing is indeed a serious one. I am the 
son of an aristocratic family of Germany — was expensively educated, 
and at college at Leipsic was ruined by drinking, etc.; was expelled 
for gambling and dishonesty. My parents were greatly grieved at 
my conduct, and I did not dare return home, but sailed for America. 
I went to St. Louis, and remained there for want of money to get 
away. I finally obtained a situation as bookkeeper in a dry goods 
house; heard from home and the death of my parents. This made 
me more sinful than ever before. I heard one of your sermons, 
which made a deep impression on me. I was taken sick, and the 
words of your text came to me and troubled me. I have tried to 
find peace of God, but have not succeeded. My friends, by reason- 
ing with me that there was no God, endeavored to comfort me. The 
thought of my sinfulness, and approaching the grave, my blasphemy, 
my bad example, caused me to mourn and weep. I think God is 
too just to forgive me my sins. My life is drawing to a close. I 
have not yet received God's favor. Will you not remember me in 
your prayer, and beseech God to save my soul from eternal destruc- 
tion? Excuse me for writing this, but it will be the last I shall 
write this side of the grave." 

Ah, my friends, his " rock was not as our rock, even our enemies 
themselves being judges." I have two more letters I would like to 
read. I am not accustomed to read so many letters, but on this oc- 
casion I will read them to you. Some of you remember me speak- 
ing of a man who came in here, who was a fugitive from justice. The 
Governor of the State from which he came had offered a reward for 
him, and he came into this tabernacle. He received Christ, and re- 
turned to his State. This morning I received the following letter: 

" Dear Sir and Brother: Owing to the law's slow delay, I am 
yet a prisoner of hope. By Thursday or Friday my case will be 
reached, and I'll be committed to the penitentiary; how long 1 do 
not know. This condition is voluntary, or of my own seeking^ be- 
cause I feel it due the cause of God, or the only evidence I can give 
of my repentance and desire to do better. My family and friends 
hope ultimately to obtain a pardon. I desire to thank you for the 
interest you have taken in me, and I ask your prayers, and those of 
God's people in Chicago, that I may have strength and grace to live 
under these calamities, that my poor heart-broken wife and children 



THEIR EOCK IS NOT AS OUR BOCK.* 499 

may be sustained, and, further, that God's blessing may rest on all 
efforts being made for my future. After it is all over, and I am in a 
felon's cell, I'll write you. In your efforts to warn men to do better 
and lead a new life, bid them beware of ambition to accomplish an 
undertaking at all hazards. Such is my condition. Had I left off 
speculation in an invention, I might now be happy. Step by step I 
yielded, until my forgeries reached over $30,000. My aim was not 
to defraud, but to succeed, and pay it all back. Oh, pray for me — 
for all who suffer with me. While in Chicago, I was under an as- 
sumed name. Here I am, in my native village, in my father's home, 
a prisoner, not daring to go out, or even to see my children (we have 
three, two boys and one girl). I hear their voices, and when they 
sleep I silently go in their little room and look at them in innocent 
slumber. My crimes are in another county, whither I go Thursday. 
May our heavenly father bless your labors. Humbly and repentant 
lam. * *" 

To-morrow probably he will go into the penitentiary to suffer for 
his crime, but now his rock is our rock. 

Last week a beautiful-looking young man came into the inquiry 
room. He had been brought up in a happy home, with a good father 
and mother. He had gone astray. When he came into the inquiry 
room, he said he intended to become a Christian; but he could not, 
because he knew what it would make him do. He had robbed an 
express company, and that sin came between him and God. He had 
been heard, and received a verdict in his favor; but he knew he was 
guilty. He had gone into the witness box and committed perjury. 
He turned away s and left the building. Last Friday, however, he 
was at the noonday meeting; he was in my private room for a while, 
and I never felt so much pity for a man in my life. He wanted to 
become a Christian; but he thought of having to go back and tell 
his father that he was guilty, after his father had paid $2,000 to con- 
duct his trial. After a great struggle, he got down on his knees and 
cried out: "O, God, help me; forgive me my sin;" and at last he 
got up and straightened himself, and said, " Well, sir, I will go 
back." A friend went down to the railway station and saw him off, 
and shortly after I got this dispatch from him: 

"Mr. Moody — God has told me what to do. The future is as clear 
as crystal. I am happier than ever before." 

He went on his way, reached his native village, and I received 
this letter from him this morning, and I have felt my soul filled with 
sorrow ever since it came. Let me say here, if there is anyone in 
this hall who has taken money from his employer, go and tell him 
of it at once. It is a great deal better for you to confess it than 
have it on your mind — than to try to cover it up. "He that cover- 
eth his sin shall not prosper." If you have taken any money that 
don't belong to you, make restitution, by confession at least, ll 



500 THEIE EOCK IS NOT AS OUR EOCK. 

any one here is being tempted to commit a forgery or any crime, let 
this be a warning to them: 

"My Beloved Fkieo and Brother: lam firm in the cause. 
I have started, and feel that God is with me in it. And, oh, dear 
brother, do never cease praying for my dear father and praying 
mother; and I wish you would some day write them, and tell them 
that God will make this all for the best. If I live for ages, I will 
never cease praying for them ; and I never can forgive myself for my 
ungratefulness to my dear broken-hearted sisters and brothers, and 
■dear, good parents. Oh, that link that held the once happy home is 
severed. O God! may it not be forever. Would that I had been a 
Christian for life; that I had taken my mother's hand when a child 
and walked from there, hand in hand, straight to heaven; and then 
the stains would not have been. But we know, O God, that they 
■can't follow me into heaven, for then I will be washed of all my sins, 
and the things that are on this earth will stay here. 

" Oh, my dear Christian brothers, my heart almost failed me when 
I was approaching my dear, happy home, and the thought that I was 
the one out of eight brothers and sisters to break the chain of hap- 
piness that surrounded that once happy and beautiful home, which 
is now shaded with misery, and the beautiful sunshine that once lit 
that happy, that dearest of homes, is now overshadowed with dark- 
ness. Oh, I fear it will take my dear parents; it is more than they 
can bear. When I reached home, and they all greeted me with a 
kiss, and I told them I had started for heaven, and God sent me home 
to tell them, my mother shed tears of happiness, and when I was 
forced to bring the death stroke upon her the tears ceased to flow, 
and God only can describe the scene that took place. I called them 
all around me, and I thought I could not pray if I were to attempt 
it. But when I knelt with them in prayer, God just told me what 
to say, and I found it the will of God; and after I had prayed, I 
kissed them all, and asked their pardon for my ungratefulness, which 
I received from them all. Then I made my preparation to leave 
home, for how long God only knows, but 1 got grace to leave in a 
cheerful way, and it appeared for a short time; and if God lets m< 
live to return home I will join my mother's side, take her to church 
and bring my brothers and sisters and father to God. We will all 
go to heaven together. My beloved brother, I must see you some 
day, and just tell you what God has done for me; and I know he 
will never forsake me, when I am shut up in those prison walls re- 
ceiving the punishment I justly deserve for my crime. When I 
can't communicate with any one else, I know I will not be shut off 
from God. Oh, glory! 

"I came to Cleveland last night, and was going to get that money 
and return it to the general superintendent, but my attorney had 
made that arrangement already. I find there is an indictment at 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 501 

Akron against me now for perjury, and I am going to take the morn- 
ing train and go to Akron. Court is in progress now, and I am go- 
ing to ask the court if there is an indictment against me; and if there 
is, I will hear it and then plead guilty. I will write you again soon, 
and give you all the particulars and the length of my sentence." 

I want to urge this letter upon your consideration as a warning. 
Think of the punishment that young man has brought upon himself; 
think of the agony of that father and mother when he broke the news 
to them; when he told them of his guilt. His "rock was not as our 
rock." May God bless every young man here to-night, and may 
they be brought to the acceptation of salvation. May they turn to 
the God of their fathers, and of their mothers, so that they can say, 
"Your rock is our rock — we are servants of God." 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 

"God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." Luke 18: 11. " God be merciful to 
me a sinner." Luke 18 : 13. 

In this first parable, we are told that men ought to pray always and 
everywhere; that prayer should not be left to a few in the churches, 
but all men ought to pray. He gives us a picture, so that we may 
understand in what spirit we ought to pray. Two men went up to 
the temple — one to pray to himself, and the other to pray to God ; 
and I think it will be safe to divide the audience into two bodies, and 
put them under these two heads. I think, however, whether we di- 
vide the audience or not, we come under these two heads — those 
who have the spirit of the Publican, and those who have the spirit of 
the Pharisee. You can find that the whole community may be di- 
vided into these two classes. The spirit of the prodigal and the 
spirit of an elder brother are still in the world; the spirits of Cain and 
Abel are still in the world, and these two are representative men. 
One of them trusted in his own righteousness, and the other didn't 
have any trust in it; and I say I think all men will come under these 
two heads. They have either given up all their self-righteousnesss — 
renounced it all and turned their back upon it — or else they are cling- 
ing to their own righteousness; and you will find that these self- 
righteous men, who are always clinging to their own righteousness, are 
continually measuring themselves by their neighbors. " I thank God 
that I am not as other men are." That was the spirit of that Phari- 



502 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 

see, and that is the spirit to-day of one class in this community; and 
the other class comes under the head of this other man. 

Now let us look at the man Christ pictured first. It is evident that 
he was full of egotism, full of conceit, full of pride; and I believe, as 
I have said before on this platform, that is one of the greatest enemies 
the Son of God has to-day; and I believe it keeps more men from the 
kingdom of God than anything else. Pride can grow on any soil, in 
any climate; no place is too hot for it, and noplace is too cold for its 
growth. How much misery has it caused in this world! How many 
men here are kept from salvation by pride? Why, it sprung up into 
heaven, and for it Lucifer was cast out; by pride, Nebuchadnezzar 
lost his throne. As he walked through Babylon he cried, " Is not 
this great Babylon which I have built?" and he was hurled from his 
throne. How many men who have become drunkards, who are all 
broken up — will gone, health gone — and yet are just as full of pride 
as the sun is of light. It won't let them come to Christ and be saved. 

A great many live like this'Pharisee — only in the form of religion; 
they don't want the wheat, only the husk; they don't want the ker- 
nel, only the shell. How many men are there in Chicago who are 
just living on empty form? They say their prayers, but they don't 
mean anything. Why this Pharisee said plenty of prayers; but how 
did he pray? He prayed with himself. He might as well pray to 
this post. Pie didn't pray to God, who knew his heart a thousand 
times better than he did himself. He thought he knew himself. He 
forgot that he was as a sepulcher, full of dead men's bones; forgot that 
his heart was rotten, currupt, and vile, and he comes and spreads out 
his hands and looks up to heaven. Why the very angels in heaven 
veil their faces before God as they cry, " Holy, holy, holy." But this 
Pharisee comes into the temple and spreads out his hands, and says: 
"Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are; I fast twice a 
week." He set before God what he had done in comparison with 
other men, and was striking a balance and making out God to be his 
debtor, as thousands in Chicago are doing to-day; and then he says, 
"I give one-tenth of all I possess." I suppose, if he was living in 
Chicago now, and we kad gone to him and asked him for a donation 
to put up this Tabernacle, he would have said: "Well, I think it 
will do good; yes, I think it will — it may reach the vagabonds and 
outcasts — I don't need it, of course — but if it will reach that class, it 
will do good. I will give $50, especially if you can get it in the 
morning papers; if you can have it announced, 'John Jones gave 
$50 to build the Tabernacle.' " That's the way some of the people 
give donations to God's cause; they give in a patronizing way; but 
in this manner God won't accept it. If your heart don't go with 
your gift, God will not accept it. This Pharisee says: "I give 
one-tenth of all I have; I keep up the services in the temple; I fast 
twice a week." He fasted twice a week, although once was only 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 503 

called for; and he thought because of this he was far above other 
men. A great many people nowadays think, because they don't eat 
meat, only fish, on Fridays, they deserve great credit; although they 
go on sinning all the week. Look at this prayer; there's no confes- 
sion there. He had got so bad, and the devil had so covered up his 
sins, that he was above confession. The first thing we have to do, 
when we come to God, is to confess. If there is any sin clustering 
around the heart, bear in mind we can have no communion with God. 
It is because we have sin about our hearts, that our prayers don't go 
any higher than our head. We cannot get God's favor, if we have 
any iniquity in our heart. People like the Pharisee, have only been 
educated to pray. If they didn't pray every night, their conscience 
would trouble them, and they would get out of bed and say their 
prayers, but the moment they get off their knees, perhaps you may 
hear them swearing. A man may just as well get a string of beads 
and pray to them; it would do him as much good. This Pharisee's 
prayer showed no spirit of contrition; there was no petition; he didn't 
ask anything from God. That is a queer kind of prayer. " Lord, I 
thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adul- 
terous, or even as this poor publican." Not a petition in his prayer. 
It was a prayerless prayer; it was downright mockery. But how 
l&any men have just got into that cradle, and been rocked to sleep 
by the devil. A short time ago I said to a man, "Are you a Chris- 
tian?" "Of course I am; I say my prayers every night." "But do 
you ever pray?" "Didn't I tell you I prayed?" he answered. "But 
do you ever pray?" "Why, of course I do; haven't I said so?" was 
his reply. I found that he prayed, but he only went through the 
form, and after a little, I found that he had been in the habit of 
swearing! "How is this?" I asked; "swearing and praying! Do 
your prayers ever go any higher than your head?" "Well," he re- 
plied, "I have sometimes thought that they didn't." My friends, if 
you are not in communion with God, your prayers are but forms; 
you are living in formalism, and your prayers will go no higher than 
your head. How many people in this assembly just go through the 
form? They cannot rest unless they say their prayers. How many 
there are with whom it is only a matter of education. 

But this man trusted in his own righteousness; he ignored the 
mercy of God, the love of Jesus Christ. He was measuring himself 
by his own rule. Now, if you want to measure yourself, do it by 
God's law, by God's requirements. A great many people have a 
rule of their own by which they measure themselves, and by that rule 
are perfectly ready and willing to forgive themselves. So it was 
with this Pharisee. The idea of coming to God and asking his for- 
giveness never enters his mind. While talking to a man — one of 
those Pharisees — some time ago about God and his need of Christ, 
he said: " I can do without Christ; I don't want him; I'm ready to 



504 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 

stand before God any time." That man was trusting in his own 
righteousness. There are a good many in Chicago like this man; 
They think they can get on without Christ, without a mediator. Now 
take a good look at this man. You know I have an idea that the 
Bible is like an album. I go into a man's house, and, while waiting 
for him, I take up an album from a table and open it. I look at a 
picture. " Why, that looks like a man I know." I turn over and 
look at another. "Well, I know that man." By and by I come up- 
on another. " Why, that man looks like my brother." I am getting 
pretty near home. I keep turning over the leaves. " Well, I de- 
clare, there is a man who lives in the street I do; why, he is my 
next-door neighbor. And then I come upon another, and I see my- 
self. My friends, if you read your Bibles you will find your own 
pictures there. It will just describe you. Now it may be there is 
some Pharisee here to-night; if there is, let him turn to the 3d chap- 
ter of John, and see what Christ said to the Pharisee: " Except a 
man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Nicode- 
mus, no doubt, was one of the fairest specimens of a man in Jerusa- 
lem in those days; yet he had to be born again, else he couldn't see 
the kingdom of God. But you may say: " I am not a Pharisee; I 
am a poor, miserable sinner, too bad to come to him." Well, turn to 
the woman of Samaria, and see what he said to her. 

See what a difference there was between that Publican and that 
Pharisee. There was as great a distance between them as between 
the sun and the moon. One was in the very highest station, and the 
other occupied the very worst. One had only himself and his sins to 
bring to God; and the other was trying to bring in his position and 
his aristocracy. I tell you, when a man gets a true sight of himself, 
all his position and station and excellences drop. See this prayer: 
" I thank God," "I am not," " I fast," "I give," " I possess." Why, 
if he had delivered a long prayer, and it had been put into the print- 
ers' hands, they would have had to send out for some " I's." " I 
thank God," " I," " I," " I." When a man prays, not with himself, 
but to God, he does not exalt himself, he don't pass a eulogy upon 
himself. He falls flat down in the dust before God. In that prayer 
you don't find him thanking God for what he had done for him. It 
was a heartless, prayerless prayer — merely a form. I hope the day 
will come when formal prayers will be a thing of the past. I think 
the reason why we cannot get more people out to the meetings is, 
because we have too many formal prayers in the churches. These 
formal Christians get up like this Pharisee, and thank God they are 
better than other men; but when a man gets a look at himself, he 
comes in the spirit of the Publican. You see this man standing 
praying with himself; but God could not give him anything. He 
was too full of egotism, too full of himself; there was no religion in 
it. God could not bless him. 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 505 

Now, for a moment, take a look at that poor Publican. Just give 
his prayer your attention. There was no capital " I" there, no ex- 
alting of himself — " God be merciful to this Pharisee; God be mer- 
ciful to the other people who have injured me; God be merciful to 
the church members, who have not been true to their belief." Was 
that his prayer? Thank God, he got to himself! " God be merciful 
to me, a sinner." It was very short. He had got his eye upon him- 
self; he saw that his heart was vile; he could not lift his eyes to 
heaven; but, thank God, he could lift his heart to heaven. There 
is not a poor Publican in the audience to-night but can send up this 
prayer. No matter what your past life has been — no matter if it has 
been as black as hell — if you but send up the prayer it will be 
heard. He didn't buy his own righteousness; and God heard his 
prayer. Spurgeon, speaking of that publican, said he had the 
soundest theology of any man in all England. He came before God, 
struck his hand on his heart, and cried: " God be merciful to me, a 
sinner." 

There was a man at one of our meetings in New York City, who 
was moved by the Spirit of God. He said: "I am going home, and 
I am not going to sleep to-night till Christ takes away my sin; if I 
have to stay up all night and pray, I'll do it." He had a good dis- 
tance to walk, and as he went along he thought: " Why can't I pray 
now as I go along, instead of waiting to go home?" But he did not 
know a prayer. His mother had taught him to pray; but it was so 
long since he had uttered a prayer that he had forgotten. However, 
the publican's prayer came to his mind. Everybody can say this 
prayer. That man in the gallery yonder, that young lady over there, 
k * God be merciful to me a sinner." May God write it on your hearts 
to-night. If you forget the sermon, don't forget that prayer. It is 
a very short prayer, and it has brought joy — salvation — to many a 
soul. Well, this prayer came to the man, and he began, "God be 
merciful to me a — ;" but before he got to srhner, God blessed him. 
He got up in the young converts' meeting, and told us as he said those 
words the light of eternal truth broke upon his soul — the light from 
the celestial regions of glory broke upon him; and when we left New 
York, he was walking in the righteousness of God. 

In a meeting recently, a man got up. I didn't know him at first. 
When I was here, he was a rumseller, and broke up his business and 
went to the mountains. This is how it happened. When I was 
here before, he opened a saloon and a grand billiard hall. It was 
one of the most magnificent billiard halls on the West side, all ele- 
gantly gilded and frescoed. For the opening he sent me an invita- 
tion to be present, which I accepted, and went around before he 
opened it. 1 saw the partners, and asked them if they would allow 
me to bring a friend. They asked me who it was. "Well, it isn't 
necessary to tell who it is; but I never go without him." They be- 



506 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 



to mistrust me. "Who is it?" they again inquired. v * Well, I'll 
e with him; and if I see anything wrong, I'll ask him to forgive 



gan 
come 

you." " Come," said they, " We don't want any praying." " You've 
given me an invitation, and I am coming." " But if you come, you 
needn't pray." "Well," said I, "I'll tell you what we'll do, we'll 
compromise the matter; and if you don't want me to come and pray 
for you then, let me pray for both of you now;" which they agreed 
to. It turned out that one of them had a praying mother; and the 
prayer touched his heart, and the other had a mother in heaven. I 
asked God to bless their souls, and just to break their business to 
pieces. In a few months, their business did go all to pieces. The 
man who got up in the prayer meeting told me a story that touched 
my soul. He said with his business he hadn't prospered; he failed, 
and went away to the Rocky Mountains. Life became a burden to 
him, and he made up his mind that he would go to some part of the 
Mountains and put an end to his days. He took a knife with him, 
which he proposed driving into his heart. He sought a part of the 
Mountains to kill himself. He had the knife ready to plunge into his 
heart, when he heard a voice — it was the voice of his mother. He 
remembered her words when she was dying, even though he was a 
boy then. He heard her say, " Johnny, if ever you get into trouble, 
pray to God." That knife dropped from his hand, and he asked 
God to be merciful to him. He was accepted, and he came back to 
Chicago and lifted up his voice to him. He may be in this Taber- 
nacle, to-night. Just the moment he cried for mercy, he got it. If 
you only cry, " God be merciful to me a sinner," he will hear you. 
Is there anything to hinder you from doing this to-night? Is there 
anything to hinder any man, woman or child in this hall to-night 
from sending up this prayer. What a glorious thing it would be if 
every soul in this hall would but lift up their hearts with the prayer, 
" God be merciful to me, a sinner." 

Now, a man asked me the other day: "How is it that a man who 
has lived an ungodly life can come in here and be saved all at once?" 
Why God so loves the sinner that he is willing to give them salva- 
tion instantly. He wants to save every one now in Chicago. The 
trouble is that we don't want God to be merciful; we don't want his 
forgiveness. God is full of compassion and love. It is the spirit of 
the devil that makes you believe the sins committed during the past 
twenty years cannot be forgiven to-night. My friends, won't you 
try him? But I will take you who believe this way, upon your own 
ground. Here is a father down here. He is full of self-righteous- 
ness; he is a Pharisee. He has a boy, whom he has not seen for 
twenty years. Well, as he goes home to-night, his servants tell him, 
"Your absent son has returned." "What!" he exclaims, " my ab- 
sent boy Johnny here — in this house?" "Yes," he is down in the 
kitchen; we wanted him to go into the parlor, but he wouldn't; he 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 507 

said the kitchen was good enough for him." He tells those servants 
to take him to his son; and for a moment the boy looks at him; 
"Father, father," he cries, "I have been bad; I haven't done a good 
act in twenty years; I have been very unkind to you; but, father, 
won't you forgive me?" Say, father, wouldn't you forgive him? 
Wouldn't you? I would like to see a man in Chicago who would 
not. I can give you a little experience of my own family. Before 
I was four years old, the first thing I remember was the death of my 
father. He had been unfortunate in business and failed. Soon after 
his death, the creditors came in and took everything. My mother 
was left with a large family of children. One calamity after another 
swept over the entire household. Twins were added to the family, 
and my mother was taken sick. The eldest boy was fifteen years of 
age, and to him my mother looked as a stay in her calamity; but all 
at once that boy became a wanderer. He had been reading some of 
the trashy novels, and the belief had seized him that he had only to 
go away and make a fortune. Away he went. I can remember how 
eagerly she used to look for tidings of that boy; how she used to 
send us to the post-office to see if there w r as a letter from him, and 
recollect how we used to come back with the sad news, " No letter." 
I remember how in the evenings we would sit beside her in the 
New England home, and we would talk about our father; but the 
moment the name of that boy was mentioned, she would hush us 
into silence. Some nights, when the wind was very high, and the 
house, which was upon a hill, would tremble at every gust, the voice 
of my mother was raised in prayer for that wanderer who had treated 
her so unkindly. I used to think she loved him more than all the 
rest of us put together; and I believe she did. On a Thanksgiving 
day — you know that is a family day in New England — she used to set 
a chair for him, thinking he would return home. Her family grew 
up, and her boys left home. When I got so that I could write, I 
sent letters all over the country, but could find no trace of him. 
One day, while in Boston, the news reached me that he had returned. 
White in that city I remember how I used to look for him in every 
store — he had a mark on his face; but I never got any trace. One 
day while my mother was sitting at the door, a stranger was seen 
coming toward the house; and when he came to the door, he stopped. 
My mother didn't know her boy. He stood there with folded arms, 
and a great beard flowing down his breast, his tears trickling down 
his face. When my mother saw those tears, she cried, "Oh, it's my 
lost son," and entreated him to come in. But he stood still. "No, 
mother," he said, "I will not come in till I hear first you have forgiven 
me." Do you believe she was not willing to forgive him? Do you 
think she was likely to keep him long standing there? She rushed 
to the threshold and threw her arms around him, and breathed for- 
giveness. Ah, sinner, if you but ask God to be merciful to you, a 



508 ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 

sinner; ask him for forgiveness, although your life has been bad; ask 
him for merc}^ and he will not keep you long waiting for an answer. 
May that be the cry of every lost soul in this Tabernacle to-night. 
" God be merciful to me, a sinner." Now, do you want to have 
mercy? Say, young man, will you ask him to-night? Young lady, 
will this be your cry to-night, "God; be merciful to me, a sinner?" 
May the love of God break every obdurate heart here to-night, and 
may this be the cry of every sinner. Don't have so much pride; 
don't have the spirit of the Pharisee — that's the spirit that keeps you 
from entering the inquiry-room and coming to the God of love, the 
God of compassion, the God of mercy, of peace, of joy, of everlasting 
happiness. Let every man and woman in this assemblage, out of 
Christ, take the place of this Publican, and go into the inquiry-room. 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 

"And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou ha3t much good laid up for many years; take thine 
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall 
be required of thee." Luke 12: 19, 20. 

I want to call your attention, for a few minutes this evening, to 
this man that the Savior has brought before us, in this portion of 
Scripture. You will see by reading it that he was what we would 
call now-a-days a successful business man — a man that many parents 
would hold up to their sons as a model. I don't think he was a 
drinking man ; there's nothing in the story that would lead us to 
suppose he was. He hadn't made his money in getting up corners 
on grain; he didn't get it by any acts of usury, by which he drew 
twenty per cent.; he didn't get it by making a corner on gold, or 
getting up a Black Friday; he didn't make his money by betting on 
election or buying stocks, but he got it lawfully. No doubt he was 
a moralist; certainly there is nothing in what we have read to-night 
against his character. That was not his fault. He didn't rent his 
property for billiard halls, for liquor saloons, or to harlots. He was 
a farmer. I don't know of a more lawful occupation than that of a 
farmer. He was a successful man. I don't believe he ever compro- 
mised with his creditors by paying fifty cents on the dollar when he 
could pay one hundred. He didn't get his money that way. He 
didn't get it by shaving notes, or by taking advantage of the widow 
and orphan, or those who were poor; but he got it lawfully. He 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 509 

was an upright man. I presume, if he was here, we would send him 
to Congress; or if we could not send him to Congress, we would 
make him mayor. He was a thoroughly good business man, who 
paid all he promised to pay. He was what we would call a shrewd 
man — a long-headed man, just deluged with business, and undoubt- 
edly, if you had spoken to him about his soul's welfare, he would 
have turned to Scripture and said, " Be not slothful in business." 
Business must be attended to first; that's what Scripture teaches. 
And I think that Chicago men have got as far as that in Scripture, 
and there they stop. A man came out here from the East, and a 
minister asked him to preach in his pulpit, and he picked out the 
text " Not slothful in business," but went no further. " Why," said 
the minister to him, " don't you know that all Chicago have got that 
down in their souls; why don't you preach upon the whole of the 
text, and not apart?" "Not slothful in business;" Chicago don't 
want that kind of preaching. He forgot the rest — " fervent in spirit 
serving the Lord." 

This man was earnest with business. He had got off that part of the 
text. Undoubtedly, he moved in the best society of his time. He 
had the best turn-out in that part of the country. He had the best 
farm in that section of the country, and the best horses and cattle. If 
he had been living to-day, probably he would have had the best 
short-horn cattle and the very finest wool sheep. He had the very 
best undoubtedly, in his time, and had been called a great success. 
No doubt in those days they had revival meetings; of course they 
bad, because one of the greatest revivals that ever took place occur- 
red in those days under John the Baptist. Perhaps it took place near 
his farm; but he could not leave his business to attend to it. Great 
multitudes flocked past his house, from early morn till late at night, 
on their way to the banks of the Jordan to hear the greatest revival- 
ist that ever lived, except Jesus Christ. But he didn't leave his busi- 
ness to go; he probably thought they were fanatics. The idea of a 
business man turning from his legitimate business, from his mer- 
chandise — should waste his time to hear that preacher. No doubt, 
he belonged to the synagogue. He believed in set doctrines, and 
walked accordingly. He would not hear of those innovations. The 
idea of spending his time in going to listen to a man who was cloth- 
ed with a leather girdle, and fed on locusts and wild honey! No, sir; 
he wouldn't hear him. Undoubtedly, Jesus and his apostles passed 
by that way, and he might have one night entertained him. Perhaps 
he had heard about the dead being raised by this man, as these 
drunkards are being raised in Chicago to-day — men who are being 
lifted from sin and degradation and a new song put into their mouth. 
Like a great many of these business men to-day, perhaps he said: 
'Oh, it's only a nine days' wonder; and the excitement will be gone 
soon." Christ came and went; but he was so pressed with business 



510 ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 

that he hadn't time to attend to what that heavenly preacher said 
He hadn't time to go to those meetings on the banks of the Jordan. 
So it is with men to-day. They haven't time to look into this great 
question of Jesus Christ. They have heard of him, but can't stop to 
see how he came, why he came, or what he has done? Business is 
so pressing. Undoubtedly, he had the very best wine there was in 
the land, and it was always on his table, although he wasn't a drunk- 
ard. He had the very best fruit, the very best fish and game upon 
his table. The very best material he wore — perhaps he sent all the 
way down to Egypt to buy clothing for his wife and daughters. His 
turn-out was the most stylish — probably he was often seen with a 
four-in-hand on the highway. Everybody said he was getting along 
nicely. If a friend came to see him, he would take him all around, 
and show him his land and his barns, and point to this and that part 
that he was going to pull down and make larger. Business was in- 
creasing. He would show him all through his grand house, and tell 
how he was once a poor boy, how his father died, and how the cred- 
itors came and took everything; how he had commenced life with 
nothing, and he had made all his. friends saw. Just like a great 
many men here. They will tell how they came to Chicago poor 
boys, how by hard work, by incessant toiling, they had gained what 
they have now, taking all the glory to themselves instead of giving 
it to God. Look at him! If a man cheated him out of five dollars, 
how he would resent it. A shrewd, practical, business man; and 
yet the devil was cheating him out of his soul. That is the way to- 
day. They are just living for time. The great trouble with this 
man was he was blind — he was just living from the cradle to the 
grave. He didn't want to take death into his plans. " In every 
man's garden there is a sepulcher." My friends, in every man's 
home there is a sepulcher. Death is inevitable; and is not a man 
mad who does not take it into his plans? 

Look at him. One night he is in the drawing-room of this beauti- 
ful palatial home and he stands with an architect looking over plans. 
He is going to have a new barn built. It is going to be the best that 
money can erect. He don't want any of his neighbors to approach 
him. It is going to be the very best. The architect has gone away, 
and he stands there looking over the plans. His family have retired, 
and all the servants have gone to bed. The doors and windows are 
all double-locked, double-barred, sealed, chained — fastened securely, 
but a stranger comes in slowly and lays a cold hand upon him, and 
says, "Come, I must take thee away." "Who art thou, stranger?" 
" I am Death." He should not have been any stranger to him. The 
idea of Death being a stranger to any of us. Why, death is all around 
us. No doubt he had attended many funerals, and perhaps acted as 
pall-bearer. Perhaps he was like some people in Chicago; he never 
heard a sermon except when he attended a funeral. He had heard 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. , 511 

a sermon then, and had seen the body laid in the ground, and now 
his time has come. He wants to bribe Death, and offers him thou- 
sands of dollars to give him a little more time; but he cannot bribe 
Death. You can bribe politicians, you may bribe these business 
men; but there is an officer that never can be bought, never can be 
bribed, and when he comes we have to obey his summons. When 
Death says, "Come, you must go with me," we have to obey him. 
When Death entered that chamber and said, "Come, I want thee," 
he might have cried: "Let me live a little longer; let me have these 
places finished; just a few years longer." "Come," says Death, 
" come." " Why, what are you going to do with me? Where are you 
going to take me?" " You have had time enough to see to that; you 
must come now." The man weeps and cries: " I've got a loving- 
wife; I have loving children; I have got a perfect palace — a beauti- 
ful home, which I have been all my life preparing; I've just got it 
fixed up now; don't summon me away now; oh, Death, spare me a 
little longer." Like that queen he cries, "Oh for an inch of time!" 
But says Death, "Come!" and lays his cold hand upon that heart, 
and it ceases to beat. Perhaps when the servants come in, they find 
him sitting at his desk dead. The news spreads through the house, 
and that wife learns she is a widow. I see that widow and those 
children gathering around the body of that father. The family phy- 
sician comes. He looks at that body and puts his hand on that pulse; 
but the pulse, that told the man how fast he was traveling toward eter- 
nity, had ceased to beat. There is a stir in that community next 
morning. "Squire so-and-so is dead; he was a shrewd man; prac- 
tical, successful man." Perhaps at the funeral the whole community 
turned out, and probably got a minister, as they get them in our day, 
to come to the funeral and deliver a eulogy over him, who said he 
was very benevolent to the poor, he was very philanthropic, and 
held him up as an example. It appears to me there is more lying 
at funerals than anywhere else. Men stand up and pronounce a 
eulogy over men who have lived a churchless, godless life; who have 
gone down to a Chrfstless, godless grave, and say, because they have 
been wise and good to the poor, they have gone to a better world. 
God sees differently. You and I may try to make out this man as 
a shrewd man, a wise man, a man to be held up as an example; but 
just see what the Son of Man says about him. He says, such a man 
is an abomination to God. The Son of Man says, "Thou fool." He 
wrote his epitaph, and it has been handed down to us as a warning 
— handed down for 1,800 years. 

I can imagine some of you saying: " If I had known that he would 
have talked about death to-night, I would not have come. Why 
don't he talk about life, about happiness; why don't he tell us about 
how to get on in business — how to get through the battle of life? 
Why does he speak about death only?" I will tell you why it is. It 



512 ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 

is because nine out of every ten die unexpectedly; it is because nine 
out of every ten die wholly unprepared. They may have been 
warned; death may have come very near. It might have entered 
their house and taken away a loved wife, loved children, a loved 
father or mother; death may have come into their homes four, five, six, 
seven, ten times, and taken away relatives from their midst. Yet 
they are unprepared. Do you know that six millions of people die 
annually in the world? Since I came here and began preaching in 
this Tabernacle, death has thrown its mantle around many a one. 
Do you remember that death in this cold, dark, bleak night is doing 
its work? I am speaking to some who may be in eternity to-morrow. 
I come to tell you to be prepared. Is not it downright folly to spend 
your lives in piling up wealth and to die as this man died, without 
hope, without Christ, without eternal life? Let me call your atten- 
tion to this. The sin of this man was simply neglect. It is clear. 
We cannot condemn his business. It was honest, legitimate. But 
the thing we do condemn is, that he neglected to secure his soul's 
salvation. A great many say: "Am I not kind to the poor; am I 
not honorable in all my transactions; do I not pay a hundred cents 
on a dollar always?" But are you honest to your soul's salvation? 
You may fold your arms and depend upon your deeds; but if you do 
not seek salvation in this world, you will be lost. You know that 
there are three steps down the hill; and they are to neglect, to refuse, 
and to despise. Now, all in this audience are standing on some of 
the steps of this ladder. You can see how, if a man neglects his sal- 
vation, he will be lost. All you men, if you neglect your business 
and leave it to itself, you know you will soon become bankrupt. 
And if a man wants to die, all he has to do is not to call in a doctor. 
Look at a general of an army of 10,000 men. He knows that there 
is an army of 10,000 coming to meet him, but he goes and takes his 
glass, and sees in the distance another army of 10,000 men, who are 
coming up to reinforce his enemy. He knows he cannot delay; if he 
does, he will soon be overwhelmed by the 20,000 men ahead of him. 
A man who neglects his soul's salvation does not look at what is 
ahead of him; and the enemy comes up and overwhelms him. Death 
comes, as it probably came to this man, at the midnight hour, unex- 
pectedly and unbidden. You know more men die at night than in 
the day — from twelve to three o'clock in the morning. How many 
men die unexpectedly. Look at the millions and millions who die 
unexpectedly. Although we live an allotted time — threescore -and 
ten — when death comes, it comes unexpectedly. This man had pro- 
vided for his family; he had built up a great business and had 
provided for his own wants; but he made no provision for his own 
soul. You might have gone to his house and taken up a pencil and 
written on everything he possessed, " Thou fool." He spent all his 
life in n^rmmulotino- money; and then he had to leave it all. A sailor 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 513 

was telling a man that his father and his grandfather and his great 
grandfather, were all drowned at sea, and the man said, "Why don't 
you get prepared to die, then; you may be drowned any day too?" 
" Where did your father die?" inquired the sailor. " On land." "And 
your grandfather?" "On land." "And your great grandfather?" 
"On land, too." " Are you prepared to die?" "Well, no." "Why 
don't you get prepared?" asked the sailor. He didn't think he was 
in danger continually himself, but that the sailor was. 

I think the greatest text that is given to us is, " Prepare to meet 
thy God." Are you ready? Why do you neglect any longer to ac- 
cept salvation? All the children of Israel had to do to be cured was 
to look on that brazen serpent; they were healed instantly. If they 
neglected to look upon that serpent, they died. All you have got to 
do is, to look upon Christ and receive life. Look at the Indian who 
is in his canoe. He has gone to sleep. Perhaps he may be dream- 
ing about hunting-grounds; perhaps he may be dreaming of his 
friends, in the Indian village. Yet he is in the rapids, which are 
taking him over the cataract. He is not rowing toward it; he is sound 
asleep; the paddle lies in the bottom of that canoe. Without any 
effort of his own, the current is taking him toward the fall. By-and- 
by, the poor man wakes up, and he sees he is on the brink of the cata- 
ract. In a few moments he will plunge over. He gives an unearthly 
cry, and down he goes into the jaws of death. All here to-night are 
in the current that is carrying them to the cataract — rushing on to 
judgment. A great many things in this world are not sure. You 
may buy grain, you may buy land, you are not sure whether the 
value will go up or down; but there is one thing that you are sure 
of, and that is deafii. " For it is appointed unto men once to die, 
but after this the judgment." After that the judgment. You can 
be sure of that. 

Now the question is, Are you ready? I can imagine some of you 
saying: "I've got time enough; I don't propose to settle this ques- 
tion just yet; there's a good many years before me." Is there a man 
who can say this? Is there a man who can say, "To-morrow is mine?" 
We are on the journey toward the judgment. Have you got a hope 
in the future; have you that which will take you over the grave; have 
you that power which will carry you through death and judgment? 
You go to Graceland and summon up the dead. Bring them into 
this hall in the midst of this audience, with their ghastly winding- 
sheets, and see how many of them died old. You will find that more 
of them died young than old. Why, whole populations are swept 
into eternity before they reach their allotted age. Instead of three- 
score and ten, the allotted age now-a-days is about thirty years. My 
friends, we will soon be in eternity. What are you doing? Are you 
reflecting? 

Some of you are on the second round of the ladder. You are re- 



514 ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 

fusing. I was talking to a lady last night, and she said calmly, 
coolly, and deliberately: "I don't want him; I don't want Christ." 
"Do you really mean this?" I asked. "Yes, I don't w r ant him." I 
presume a few years ago she would not have said this; but she had 
got on the second round of the ladder. And some now despise it. 
If you get a tract upon the streets, you just tear it up. You mock 
and make light of the God of your father and your mother. You 
have got on the bottom round of the ladder, and you despise the gift 
of God. My friends, that is the last round. A man has sunk pretty 
low when he despises the gift of God — when he hurls it back to God 
and says, " I will not have it." 

Now, I want to ask you this question, "What are you going to do? 
Will you think a few minutes, young man? Will you stop for a few 
minutes, and just think? I wish I could wake this audience up for 
five minutes. Just ask yourselves where you are;" or, to make it 
more personal, "What am 1? Where am I going?" A dying man 
called a Hindoo priest to his bedside, and asked him where he was 
going. The priest said he was going into an animal. " Well, after 
that where am I going?" "Going into another animal." "Where 
next?" "Into another animal;" and he went on telling the man he 
would enter into this and that animal, until he stopped. Then the 
man asked, " Where shall I go after that?" and the poor heathen 
priest could not tell him. Ah, won't you settle this question to- 
night? " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul?" Suppose a man has the whole wealth of Chi- 
cago rolled at his feet, and then he dies; what has he gained? 

A father was on his death-bed lately, and he called in his son. 
The boy was careless ; he would not take death* into account. He 
wanted to enjoy the pleasures of life; and he took no heed of the 
future. The old man said: "My son, I want to ask you one favor, 
and that is, when I am dead promise me you will come into this 
room for five minutes every day for thirty days. You are to come 
alone, not to bring a book with you; and sit here." The thought- 
less young man promised to do it. The father died. The first thing 
when he went into that room that he thought of was his father's 
prayer — his father's words, and his father's God; and before the five 
minutes expired he was crying out, " God be merciful to me." It 
seems to me if I could get men to always ask themselves, " What is 
going to be my end?" "Where am I going to spend eternity?" it 
would not be long before they would come to Christ. You may be 
moralists; you may be proprietors of a successful business; you may 
be what the world calls successful business men; yet, "Where are 
you going to spend eternity?" Can you tell me where you will be 
next year? Can you tell me where you are going to be ten years 
hence? Can you tell me? I want to read a little notice on a card 
which is headed, "I have missed it at last." 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 515 

A few months ago, in New York, a physician called upon a young 
man who was ill. He sat for a little by the bedside, examining his 
patient, and then he honestly told him the sad intelligence that he 
had but a short time to live. The young man was astonished; he 
did not expect it would come to that so soon. He forgot that death 
comes " in such an hour as ye think not." At length he looked up 
in the face of the doctor, and with a most despairing countenance, 
repealed the expression, "I have missed it — at last." "What have 
you missed?" inquired the tender-hearted, sympathizing physician^ 
"I have missed it — at last," again the young man replied. The doc- 
tor, not in the least comprehending what the poor young man meant, 
said: " My dear young man, will you be so good as to tell me what 
you — " He instantly interrupted, saying, "Oh! doctor, it is a sad 
stoiy — a sad — sad story that I have to tell. But I have missed it!" 
u Missed what?" "Doctor, I have missed the salvation of my soul." 
" Oh! say not so. It is not so. Do you remember the thief on the 
cross?" "Yes, I remember the thief on the cross. And I remember 
that he never said to the Holy Spirit — Go thy way. But I did. 
And now he is saying to me, Go your way" He lay gasping awhile, 
and looking up with a vacant, staring eye, he said: "I was awaken- 
ed, and was anxious about my soul a little time ago. But I did not 
want religion then. Something seemed to say to me, Don't postpone 
it. I knew I ought not to do it. I knew I was a great sinner and 
needed a Savior. I resolved, however, to dismiss the subject for the 
present. Yet I could not get my own consent to do it, until I had 
promised that I would take it up again, at a time not remote and 
more favorable. I bargained away, insulted, and grieved away the 
Holy Spirit. I never thought of coming to this. I meant to have 
religion, and make my salvation sure. And now I have missed it — 
at last." " You remember," said the doctor, " that there were some 
who came at the eleventh hour!' " My eleventh hour," he rejoiced, 
" was when I had that call of the Spirit. I have had none since — I 
shall not have. I am given over to be lost." " Not lost," said the 
doctor, "you may yet be saved." "No — not saved — never. He tells 
me I may go my way now. I know it — I feel it, feel it here," laying 
his hand upon his heart. Then he burst out in despairing agony: 
" Oh, I have missed it! I have sold my soul for nothing- — a feather 
— a straw — undone forever!" This was said with such unutterable, 
indescribable despondency, that no other words were said in reply. 
After lying a few moments, he raised his head, and looking all 
around the room as if for some desired object — turning his eyes in 
every direction — then burying his face in the pillow, he again ex- 
claimed, in agony and horror: "Oh, I have missed it at last!" and 
he died. 

Dear friends, you may not hear my voice again. I may be speak- 
ing to you for the last time. You may never come into this Tabei - 



516 



ON SAVING CHILDREN. 



nacle again, and I beg of you as a friend, and as a brother, do not 
go out of this Tabernacle without salvation. Let this night be the 
night that you will accept everlasting life. Let this be the night on 
which you will cry from the depth of your heart, " Let me have 
Christ, let me have salvation." " Though it cost me my rio-ht hand 
or my right eve, I will have Christ to-night." May that be'the cry 
of every one here to-night, and salvation be accepted for time and 
eternity, by every soul in this building. May God wake up every soul 
here to-night, and when that summons comes may you go to triumph 
over the grave, and so enter into a glorious immortality. 



ON SAVING CHILDREN. 

" Bring him unto me." Mark 9: 19. 

I have had a little trouble to find a text for to-night. All last 
night and this morning I was trying to find one, but could not. 
This morning, however, in coming out of Far well Hall prayer- meet- 
ing, a mother, whom I have known for a great many years, came 
to me with tears running down her cheeks, and, with grief, nearly 
sinking to the floor. " Oh! Mr. Moody," she said, "have these meet- 
ings to close and not one of my children saved?" And the thought 
flashed on my mind, I have got a text; and it is in the ninth chapter 
of Mark, which we have read: "Bring him unto me." The disci- 
ples had failed to cure this man's son. James and John and Peter 
had been with the Master upon the mount, where they had seen the 
transfiguration; and when they came down from that scene, they 
found a great company around his disciples, asking them questions. 
I suppose the skeptics were laughing and ridiculing the religion of 
Jesus Christ and its teachers. His disciples had failed; they had 
not been able to cast out the dumb spirit. And the father said, 
when asked a question: "I have brought my son to your disciples, 
and they cannot heal him ;" and he said, " Bring him unto me." When 
he was brought, the devil threw him down. The moment the poor 
deaf and dumb man came into the presence of Christ, the spirit 
within began to tear at him. This is often the case now. Some- 
times, when there is a good deal of prayer going up for people, 
they become worse. When the Spirit begins with men, instead of 
getting better, they sometimes become worse, and it seems as if God 



ON SAVING CHILDREN. 51 T 

did not answer prayer; but this is only a sign that God is at work. 
A mother was praying for and giving good council to a loved son 
lately; and he said, if ever she spoke to him about religion again he 
would leave the house. Whenever the word was presented to him, 
he became worse. That mother did not take her son to the preach- 
ers, but, thank God, she took him to Christ. She didn't take him to 
the church, she did not take him to her friends; she knew that if he 
was to be saved, it was only by Jesus Christ. She took him to the 
Master; and the result was that within forty-eight hours after saying 
this to his mother, that wayward boy was brought to the feet of 
Jesus. So if any have been praying earnestly and faithfully for their 
sons without success, my dear friends, get your eyes off the church, 
off friends, off everything else but him, and let your prayer go up 
day and night; and it will be heard, because we have God's "Word 
for it. An answer is sure. We are not sure whether the sun will 
rise to-morrow morning; but we are sure that he will answer our 
prayers. It is sure. If we hold on to God in prayer, and find that 
we don't get our supplications answered in a month, or in a year; 
we are to hold on till the blessing comes. Now, it may be that this 
mother, like a great many mothers, has been looking to the prayers 
here — looking to what has been going on in these meetings, and has 
been saying; "There are so many Christian people praying; and 
surely God will bless my boys, owing to these prayers." Now, we 
must get our eyes from off multitudes, from sermons, from others 1 
prayers, and let all our expectations be only from him; and a bless- 
ing will come. These meetings have been very profitable; and 
during the weeks past, I have noticed that those fathers and moth- 
ers who have gone out after other people's children, have had their 
own wonderfully blessed. Whatever good you do to other people's 
children, the reflex will come back upon yours. It may be that that 
mother was very selfish, and wanted her sons blessed only; she 
hasn't, perhaps, been trying to bring others under the influence of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day, fathers and mothers come to me 
with tears in their eyes — fathers and mothers who have gone out 
after other people's children — testifying how their children have 
been blessed. A mother who has been working for him here, told 
me that her five children — every one of them — had been blessed by 
these meetings; and I suppose that, if I put it to the vote, many pa- 
rents here would stand up and testify as to the answers received to 
pra}^ers and personal efforts for their children. I was very much 
surprised, lately, to see an old citizen coming into our meetings with 
a wayward son by his side, night after night. Every evening he was 
to be seen with him; and last Monday evening he got up and told 
what God had done for him in answer to personal effort. That father 
got woke up, and did not rest till he was answered. 

Now it seems to me, just as we are leaving this city, that a great 



518 OX SAVING CHILDREN. 

many parents are beginning to wake up to the fact that these meet- 
ing are about to be closed, and their children have not been blessed. 
When we were in Great Britain, in Manchester, a father woke up to 
the fact that we were going away from that town. Just as we were 
about closing, he got wonderfully interested in the meetings; and 
when we had gone to another town, he said to his wife: "I have 
made a mistake; I should have taken you and the children and the 
servants to those meetings. Now I'm going to take my son from 
business, and take you and the children and the servants to the town 
where they are being held now, and take a house, and have you all 
attend the meetings." He came and took a house, and sat down de- 
termined to remain there till all had been blessed. I remember him 
coming to me one night, soon after arriving, and saying: "Mr. Moody, 
my wife has got converted. Thank God for that. If I get nothing 
else, I am well paid." A few nights after, he came in and said his 
son had become converted; and then he told me one of the servants 
had been brought under the influence. And so he went on, until 
the last day we were to be in that town arrived, and he came to me 
and said the last one of the family had yielded himself up to Christ; 
and he went back to his native city rejoicing. When we were in 
London, the father and son came up and assisted in the work; and 
I don't know a happier man in all Europe than that one. How many 
parents, living almost within sight of this building, have felt no in- 
terest in these meetings; yet they know their children are hastening 
down to death and ruin. "Business must be attended to:" "time 
is very precious." And so they have suffered these precious oppor- 
tunities to go to waste, by a neglect to bring their sons and daugh- 
ters under religious influences; and the result will be that many and 
many a family in this city will see dark days and bitter hours, and 
many a parent will go down to the grave on account of wayward 
children. Now, why won't you, even in the closing hours of these 
meetings — why won't parents wake up and bring their children to 
Christ; just hold them up in the arms of their faith, and pray: " Lord 
Jesus, save these children that God has given me. Grant, O God, 
that they may be with me in glory." 

It may be that some father or mother is saying: " I have not been 
living right myself in God's sight; so how can I talk to my children 
of him?" It seems to me, the best thing to do under those circum- 
stances is to make a confession. I know a father who, a few days 
ago, told his children that he had not been living right. The tears 
rolled down his cheeks as he asked their forgiveness. " Why," said 
one child, "do you ask us for forgiveness? Why, father, you have 
always been kind to us?" "I know I have, my child," he answered; 
"but I have not been doing my whole duty toward you. I've never 
had a family altar; I have paid more heed to your temporal welfare 
than to your spiritual: but I am going to have a family altar now." 



OX SAVING CHILDREN. 519 

He took down his Bible, and began there; and it wasn't long before 
his children were touched. Suppose you haven't been living in ac- 
cordance with the gospel: why not make an open confession to your 
wife, and to your children? Set up a family altar, and pray for your 
children; and it will not be long before you will be blessed. Let us 
come to him. ' Let us look straight away from the churches; let us 
look from every influence to only the Master himself; and let his 
words ring in the soul of every parent here to-night: "Bring him 
unto me." Have you got a wayward son? He may be in some dis- 
tant State, or foreign land; and by the last news you received of 
him, was rushing headlong down to ruin. My friend, you can reach 
him; you can reach him by intercession at the throne. A short time 
after I got here, I received a letter from Scotland. I haven't time 
to read it. The letter was sent to a minister, and he forwarded it to 
me. It was the out-gushing of a loving father. He asked us to 
look out for his boy, whose name was Willie. That name touched 
my heart, because it was the name of my own boy. I asked Mr. 
Sawyer to try and get on the track of that boy some weeks ago; but 
all his efforts were fruitless. But, away off in Scotland, that Chris- 
tian father was holding that boy up to God in prayer; and last Fri- 
day, in yonder room, among those asking for prayer was that Willie. 
And he told me a story there that thrilled my heart, and testified how 
the prayers of that father and mother, in that far-off land, had been 
instrumental in affecting his salvation. Don't you think the heart of 
that father and mother will rejoice? He said he was rushing madly 
to destruction; but there was a power in those prayers that saved 
that boy. Don't you think, my friends, that God hears and answers 
prayer; and shall we not lift up our voices to him, that he will bless 
the children he has given us? 

You know how Elisha was blessed by the Shunamite woman, 
and she was blessed in return by a child. You know how the child 
died, and how she resolved to go at once to the man of God. I can 
imagine Elisha sitting on Mount Carmel, and seeing that woman afar 
off, and saying to his servant: "Do you see that woman? I think I 
know her face. It is the Shunamite, now that I see her face. Go 
run, and ask her, Is it well with her." Off the servant runs, and 
when the servant came to her, she said, " It is well." Although her 
child was dead, she said, "It is well." She knew that the man who 
gave her the child could raise it up. She runs up to the Master, and 
falls down, putting her arms about his feet; and the servant tried to 
put her away. But Elisha wouldn't let him. He says to the ser- 
vant: "Here, take this staff, and go and lay it upon the face of the 
dead child;" and tell the servant to go home with her. But she 
won't leave the man of God. She doesn't want to lean upon the 
staff, or the servant. It wasn't the servant, or the staff, that she 
wanted, but the man of God that she wanted with her. "You come 



520 ON SAVING CHILDREN. 

with me," she says; "you can raise it up." She would not leave 
him till he came to her house. He went in and closed the door, and 
prayed to God that the child should be restored, and then lay upon 
the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands; and the 
child began to sneeze, and there was the child of the Shunamite 
woman raised up. Bear in mind that it was not the servant nor the 
staff, but the Master himself that saved the child. My friends, if we 
lean upon the Master, we shall not be disappointed. The moment 
that child was brought to the Master, the wish of that woman was 
granted; and if we, as parents, bring our children to him, we shall 
not be disappointed. 

But there is another thing I want to call your attention to. We 
don't fast enough. This fasting don't mean fasting from meat, as 
many people think to be necessary. It seems to me, if I had a 
wayward boy, I should put myself at the feet of Christ, and fast a 
little, by keeping away from amusements, from theatres. I find a 
great many worldly Christians going off into the theatres. They 
say: " I only go for a little relaxation ; of course, I could stop going 
whenever I like, and needn't be influenced by them; I only go occa- 
sionally." A worldly Christian said to me, "I only go once a month." 
"Well," said I, "how about your boy? He may not have the will- 
power you have; and your example, in going only once a month, 
may only be the means of his going there all the time." A man, my 
friends, may have great will-power; yet his son may have very little. 
And, therefore, a little fasting in this regard would be good for our 
children. We should abstain from all pleasures that are liable to be 
hurtful to our children. If you, fathers and mothers, want your 
children to keep from evil influences, you ought to keep away from 
them yourselves. If they see you indulging in these pleasures, they 
think they are on the right side by doing the same thing. A young 
man says: "I don't want to be any better than my father; and he 
goes to the theatres." Now, there are young men who have come 
into the inquiry-rooms one night, and the next night have gone off to 
the theatres. I don't know how a man with the Spirit of God could 
go there. These men may one night be here, and the next night 
may go off to some amusement, where they hear as a waltz: " What 
Shall the Harvest Be;" or, "Almost Persuaded." How Christian 
men and women can go to such places as that, I cannot conceive. 
If it is not sacrilege, then nothing is. What can those worldly 
Christians expect from their children, if they frequent such places? 
I think the time has come for a little fasting. When Christ died, it 
was to separate his church from the world; and how can a man, who 
has consecrated himself as a child of God, go back to the world with- 
out trampling that blood under his feet? When will the day come 
when a man of God shall make known by his conversation, by his 



ON SAYING CHILDREN. 521 

actions, by his general appearance, that he has been freed from the 
curse of the world? 

Then another thing. It seem to me that every man should have 
a family altar in his house. And if we cannot deliver prayers, let us 
take up each of our children by name; let us ask that Johnny, while 
playing with his schoolmates, may be kept from temptation. Why, 
we forget that a little child's temptations are just as much to him as 
ours are to us. The boy at school has just as heavy trials as we 
have. And then pray for Mary. If she is in trouble, bring it out, 
and pray that God may give her power to overcome any besetting 
sin that she may have in her heart. I believe the day has come 
when we should have more religion in our families, more family al- 
tars. I believe that the want of this is doing more injury to the 
growth of our children than anything else. Why, long before the 
church was in a building, it was in the homes of the people. We 
can make the family altar a source of happiness. By it we can make 
the home the pleasantest place in the world. Let us, when we get 
up in the morning, bright and fresh, have some family devotions. If 
a man runs down town immediately on getting up, and don't get 
home until five o'clock, and then has family devotions, the children 
will be tired and so go sound asleep. And it seems to me that we 
should give a little more time to our children, and call them around 
the altar in the morning. Or, suppose we ask them to recite a verse, 
to recite a portion of a hymn — it must not necessarily be a long one; 
and after that have some singing, if the children can sing. Do not 
be in a hurry to get it out of the way, as if the service was a nuisance. 
Take a little time. Let them sing some religious hymns. The sing- 
ing need not be all psalms, but there should be a few simple religious 
hymns. Let the little children be free from all restraint. Then pray 
for each of them. 

Another thing. It seems to me that we devote too little time to 
studying the Sunday-school lesson. You know, now we have a uni- 
form lesson all over the country. That lesson should be taken up 
by parents, and they should try to explain it to their children. But 
how many ever think of this? How many parents ever take the 
trouble to inquire even as to the kind of Sunday-school teachers who 
instruct their children. And then we should take our children into 
the churches with us. It seems to me we are retrograding:, at the 
present day. A great many of our children are never seen in the 
churches at all. Even if the sermon don't touch them, they are 
getting into good habits. And then, if the minister says a weak 
thing, don't take it up; don't pick it out or speak of it before the 
children, because you are bringing your minister into disrespect with 
your children. If you have got a minister whom you cannot respect, 
you ought to get out of that church as soon as you can. Encourage 
them to bring the text home; let the Word be spoken to them at all 



ON SAVING CHILDREN. 



times, in season and out of season. If the great Bible truths sink 
down into their hearts, the fruit will be precious; wisdom will blos- 
som upon them, and they will become useful in the Church, and in 
the world. Now, how many parents will not take the trouble to 
explain to the children what the minister preaches. Take your chil- 
dren into the pews, and let them hear the Word of God; and if they 
do not understand it, show it to them. You know the meat they 
require is the same as we feed on; but if the pieces are too large for 
them, we must cut it up for them — cut it finer. If the sermon is a 
hard one, cut it into thin slices, so that they can take it. There was 
a time when our little boy did not like to go to church, and would 
get up in the morning and say to his mother, " What day is to-mor- 
row?" " Tuesday." " Next day?" " Wednesday." " Next day?" 
" Thursday;" and so on, till he came to the answer, "Sunday." 
*' Dear me," he would moan. I said to his mother: " We cannot have 
our boy grow up to hate Sunday in that way; that will never do." 
That is the way I used to feel, when I was a boy. I used to look 
upon Sunday with a certain amount of dread. Very few kind words 
were associated with that day. I don't know that the minister ever 
said a kind thing, or ever even put his hand on my head. I don't 
know that the minister even noticed me, unless it was when I was 
asleep in the gallery, and he woke me up. This kind of thing won't 
do. We must make the Sunday the most attractive day of the week; 
not a day to be dreaded, but a day of pleasure. Well, the mother 
took the work up with this boy. Bless those mothers in their work 
with the children. Sometimes I feel as if I would rather be the 
mother of John Wesley, or Martin Luther, or John Knox, than have 
all the glories in the world. Those mothers, who are faithful with 
the children God has given them, will not go unrewarded. My 
wife went to work and took those Bible stories, and put those 
blessed truths in a light that the child could comprehend, and soon 
the feeling of dread for the Sabbath with the boy was the other way. 
"What day is to-morrow?" he would ask. "Sunday." "I am so 
glad." And if we make these Bible truths interesting — break them 
up, in some shape, so that these children can get at them, then they 
will begin to enjoy them. Now, there's no influence like a mother's; 
and if the mothers will give a little time to the children in this way, 
and read them some Bible story, or tell them it in a simple way, it 
will not be long before the child knows the Bible, from beginning to 
-end. I know a little boy, eleven years of age, who got up last Mon- 
day in the meeting, and told how he found Christ. His father began 
by telling him Bible stories, and now he knows them as well as I do. 
The little fellow of eleven years is quite a preacher. Let us pick out 
the stories that will interest them, from Genesis to Revelation, and 
that is the way to bring our children to Christ. It will fill them with 
the gospel — fill them with Christ. They will soon be so full of Jesus 



ON SAVING CHILDREN. 523 

that, when an infidel comes to unseat their faith, he will find no room 
for infidelity. 

Now, the New Year's day is coming on. T haven't much time to 
speak about that now; but let me ask, What are you going to do 
when the young men come to your homes on that day? Are you 
going to set wine before them. Are you going to tempt the sons of 
others to go astray? Don't offer them, I implore you, that hellish 
cup; don't be the instruments to lead the children of others away from 
the God of their fathers. I hope that, in this city, this infernal cus- 
tom will soon be swept away. The idea of having some of our best 
young men reeling on the streets beastly drunk, on the first day of 
the year, is revolting; and yet there are Christians who, when young 
men visit them on New Year's day, just urge the cup on them — 
press them to take it. They have got some new kind of wine, and 
they want them to taste it, and urge the young man just to take a 
little; and the young man hasn't got will, hasn't got back-bone 
enough to resist the temptation; hasn't the power to say, No. He 
goes to another house and the same thing is repeated, and so on, un- 
til at night the poor fellow goes home intoxicated, and breaks the 
heart of some mother. Remember, when you offer the cup, if it is 
not to your own boy, it is to somebody else's boy. I have a great 
respect for that old woman who, with ribbons flying, ran into a 
crowded thoroughfare and rescued a child from under a wagon. 
Some one asked her, " Is it your child?" " No," she replied, " but 
it is some one's child." She had a mother's heart; and bear in mind 
when a young man comes to you, as you put the cup before him 
— remember, he is some other one's child. God has given us a 
charge, not only in looking to the salvation of our own children; but 
we have to see to the salvation of the children of others. 

Now, let me say a word to the unfaithful fathers. At the close 
of this meeting, if you have been unfaithful to the children God has 
given you, why not stay, and then go home and make an honest con- 
fession to your children. If you have a boy who is a reckless young- 
man; if he is a drunkard, ask yourselves: "Have I done all that I 
could? have I ever set before him the truth of Christ ?'* Not long- 
ago, a young man went home late. He had been in the habit of go- 
ing home late, and the father began to mistrust that he had gone 
astray. He told his wife to go to bed, and dismissed the servants, 
and said he would sit up till his son came home. The boy came 
home drunk, and the father in his anger gave him a push into the 
street and told him never to enter his house again, and shut the door. 
He went into the parlor and sat down, and began to think: " Well, 
I may be to blame for that boy's conduct, after all. I have never 
prayed with him; I have never warned him of the dangers of the 
world." And the result of his reflections was that he put on his 
overcoat and hat, and started out to find his boy. The first police- 



524 ON SAVING CHILDREN. 

man he met he asked eagerly, "Have you seen my boy?" "No." 
On he went till he met another. "Have you seen anything of my 
son?" He ran from one to another all that night, but not until morn- 
ing did he find him. He took him by the arm and led him home, 
and kept him till he was sober. Then he said: "My dear boy, I 
want you to forgive me. I've never prayed for you; I've never lifted 
my heart to God for you; I've been the means of leading you astray, 
and I want your forgiveness." The boy was touched, and what was 
the result? Within twenty-four hours that son became a convert, 
and gave up that cup. It may be that some father has had a way- 
ward son. Go to God, and on your knees confess it. Let the voice 
of Jesus sink down in your heart to-night. " Bring him unto me." 
A father, whom I have known for many years, said to me this after- 
noon, with tears trickling down his cheeks: " I want to tell you 
something that I have never told in public. Forty-three years ago, 
when I was five years old, I was sick with scarlet fever; and my 
mother knelt down and prayed to God, if it was his will, that her 
boy might be spared. My father was a drinking man, and she also 
prayed that I might be kept safe from the cup. My mother died 
early; but my mother's prayer has followed me all those years, and 
I have never touched one drop of liquor." Last night a young man, 
the son of that man, got up and told his experience. Yes, the moth- 
er's prayer for her little boy, five years old, was answered. That 
prayer was answered. Why shall we not lift up our hearts in pray- 
er for our children? Let us plead, day and night, till God saves 
them — till he brings them into the ark of safety. May the God of 
Israel save our children. 

I remember being in the camp, and a man eame to me and said: 
"Mr. Moody, when the Mexican war began I wanted to enlist. My 
mother, seeing I was resolved, said if I became a Christian I might 
go. She pleaded and prayed that I might become a Christian; but 
I wouldn't. I said, when the war was over I would become a Chris- 
tian, but not till then. All her pleading was in vain; and at last, 
when I was going away, she took out a watch and said: 4 My son, 
your father left this to me when he died. Take it: and I want you 
to remember that every day, at twelve o'clock, your mother will be 
praying for you.' Then she gave me her Bible, and marked out pas- 
sages, and put a few different references in the fly-leaf. I took the 
watch and it was twelve o'clock. I had been gone four month; but 
I remembered that my mother at that hour was praying for me. Some- 
thing prompted me to ask the officer to relieve me for a little; and I 
stepped behind a tree, away out on those plains of Mexico, and cried 
to the God of my mother to save me." My friends, God saved him, 
and he went through the Mexican war: "And now," he said, "I have 
enlisted again to see if I can do any good for my Master's cause;" 
and the old man was down among the soldiers there, preaching 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 040 

Christ. My friends, let us believe that God answers prayer, and let 
us not cease our supplication till salvation comes to our children, and 
all our little ones are brought into the ark of safety. Let us all 
unite in prayer. 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 

'* I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5: 32. 

I want to call your attention to-night to a text which you will find 
in the 5th chapter of Luke and the 32d verse. The text is also re- 
corded in Matthew and Mark; and whenever you find a passage 
recorded by all three of the evangelists, you may know that it is one 
of those important truths which he wants to impress upon people. 
" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." It 
was when he first came down to Capernaum that he uttered these words. 
He had been cast out of Nazareth; they didn't want him; they 
wouldn't have salvation. He came down to Capernaum, and there 
he found Levi sitting at the receipt of customs, and he called him to 
become one of his disciples. Levi was so full of joy when he found 
Christ — as all young converts are — that he got up a great feast; and 
he invited all the publicans and sinners to it. I suppose he wanted 
to get them all converted; that was the reason he prepared a sumptu- 
ous feast; and they came, not to hear Jesus, but just to partake of the 
feast that Levi had prepared for them. And Jesus was there too, 
among these publicans and sinners. The Pharisees were there too; 
and they began to murmur against his disciples, saying: "Why do 
these men eat with publicans and sinners?" And it was on this 
occasion that Christ uttered this wonderful text: "I came not to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance." That is what he came into 
this world for; he came into the world just for the very purpose of 
saving sinners. Now a good many men come to Chicago to do a 
certain work. Some come to practice law, that's their profession; 
others come to practice medicine, because that's their business; some 
are business men and some are mechanics: and when Christ came 
into this world he came for a purpose; He had a profession, if you 
will allow me the expression — he came to call sinners to repentance. 
You know when he was going down to the Samaritan town, his dis- 
ciples went down to see whether they would let him come there. We 



526 SALVATION FOR SINNEKS. 

find him on his way from Galilee to Jerusalem. You know there 
was such a hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans that they 
would have no dealings with each other; and he sent his disciples 
on to see if he would be allowed to enter. The Samaritans would 
not allow him there, and his disciples were so incensed that James 
and John asked Jesus to " command fire to come down from heaven 
and consume them, even as Elias did." " Why," said the Son of 
man, " I didn't come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." 
That's what he came for. He came to bless men; he came to do 
men good; and there is not a sinner here to-night who cannot be 
saved — and will be saved to-night, if they wish. 

You may call this world a great hospital, and all the people are 
born sick. A great many people imagine their souls are never dis- 
eased, and think they don't need a physician; but when people wake 
up to the fact that their souls are diseased, then they find the need 
of a physician. But there is no need for the physician unless you feel 
you are sick. You know you could not send a physician to a man who 
was well. Suppose I go on the West Side and ask a celebrated 
physician to come over and see Mr. White. Suppose he comes round 
and finds Mr. White sitting in his drawing-room, perfectly well. 
u Why, how is this? Mr. Moody told me you were sick, and bade 
me make a professional call." Not only is the physician disgusted, 
but the patient is too. The world don't send for a physician till 
sickness comes. When it feels sick, then it sends for a doctor, and 
the doctor comes. And whenever a man feels his need of Christ 
and calls, that moment he comes and is healed. There is a physician 
here to-night for every sinner. I don't care what your sins may be, 
or how long you have been living in sin; I don't care if your life has 
been as black as hell, the Great Physician is here. What for? Just 
to heal every man and woman that wants to be healed. 

Now, the great trouble is to make people believe they are sick; 
but the moment you believe that you are, then it is that you are 
willing to take the remedy. I remember, some years ago, a patent 
medicine came out, and the whole of Chicago was placarded about 
it. I could not turn my head but I saw " Paine's Pain Killer." On 
the walls, on the curb-stones, everywhere was "pain-killer," "pain- 
killer." I felt disgusted at the sight of these bills, constantly tell- 
ing me about this patent medicine. But one day I had a terrible 
headache, so bad that I could hardly see, and was walking down 
the streets and saw the bills again; and I went and bought some. 
When I was well, I didn't care for it; but when I got sick, I found 
it was the very thing I wanted. If there is one here who feels the 
need of a Savior, remember, the greater the sin the greater the 
need of a Savior. I remember, when I was coming back from 
Europe, on the steamer there was a young officer; I felt greatly 
drawn out toward him, because I could see he was dying. It didn't 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 0'4i 

seem to him as if he was dying; but, you know, death is very de- 
ceitful. He seemed to be joyous and light-hearted. He would talk 
about his plans, and take out his guns, and tell how he intended to 
go hunting when he arrived; but it seemed to me that he would not 
live to see this country. By and by, he was taken down on his bed; 
and then the truth came to him that death was upon him. He got a 
friend to write out a telegram, which this friend was to send to his 
mother when they arrived. It read: " Mother, I am real sick. 
Charlie." As soon as the boat touched the shore, he was to send it. 
" But," said some one, " why not tell her in the telegram to come?" 
44 Ah," he replied, " she will come." He knew, whenever she read it 
and saw that he wanted help, she would come. It was the knowl- 
edge of his need that would bring her. So Christ is waiting to hear 
our need, and man's need brings out the help of God. As I said 
before, the real trouble is that men don't think they need him. You 
know that in one place — in the 15th chapter of Luke — they brought 
this charge against him: " This man receiveth sinners, and eateth 
with them." This charge was brought against him, again and again. 
I am told by Hebrew scholars that instead of "receiveth" it should 
be rendered, u He is looking out for them." And that's what he was 
doing: he was looking for them. He didn't care how black in sin 
they might be, he was ready to take them. 

Now, a great many say, "I am too great a sinner to be saved." 
That is like a hungry man saying he is too hungry to eat, or a sick 
man saying he is too sick to send for a doctor, or a beggar saying, 
" I am too poor to beg; I'll wait till I get some money first." If a 
man is hungry and perishing, you must relieve him. Now there is 
not a sinner in Chicago but has his representative in the Bible. 
Take, for instance, the publicans. You know the Jews thought this 
class about the lowest in the world. They put them lower than any 
other kind of sinner; they placed them along with the sinners 
— "publicans and sinners," The publicans were the tax collectors, 
and they defrauded the people at every turn. For instance, a man 
in South Chicago will pay over, perhaps, a hundred thousand dollars 
for the privilege of just collecting the taxes; and then he goes to 
work and screws the people out of a hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars. He don't care a straw for justice, or appearances. He comes 
into the cottage of the widow and taxes half she has. At every 
house, the tax collector puts the blocks to his victims; and famine 
often comes in when he goes out. The people detest him; they 
hate him with a perfect hatred. They always find him a drag on 
them; and feel he hasn't a bit of sympathy for them. Their money, 
they find, is taken without warrant; their homes are broken up, and 
trouble and starvation come on them. And so the publican was 
hated wherever he turned. He was the agent of the Roman tyrant, 
and the people were brought up to shun him. He deserved it all. 



528 SALTATION FOR SINNERS. 

and even more, by his heartless exactions; and yet Christ forgave 
even him. And just so rum-sellers can be saved. And another class 
that Christ had mercy on was the thieves. When on the cross he 
saved a thief. There may be some thief here to-night. I tell you, 
my friend, you may be saved if you only will. There may be some 
one here who is persecuting a good wife, and making her home a per- 
fect hell on earth. But you, too, may be saved. There may be 
some here persecuting the church, but there's salvation for you. 
When Saul was persecuting the Christians from city to city, he was 
stopped short by the voice of God; he was converted. And those 
high-headed Pharisees, so well versed in the law of Moses, even they 
were converted. Joseph, of Arimathea, was a Pharisee, and so was 
Nicodemus. 

But to-night I want to talk about another class that Jesus dealt 
with, and led to a higher life. I want to talk about fallen women. 
There are some people who believe that these have fallen so low that 
Christ will pass them by. But, my friends, that thought comes from 
the Evil One. In all this blessed book, there is not one, not a soli- 
tary one of this class mentioned that ever came to him but that he 
received them. Yes, he even went out of his way and sought her 
out. Now I want to take three representative cases, where these 
women had to do with Christ. One is the case of an awakened one. 
The Spirit of God has dealt with her anxious, wakened soul. The 
Lord was one day at Jerusalem, and a banquet was given him by 
Simeon. There was a banquet table in the house, arranged according 
to the fashion of that day. Instead of chairs for the guests, as was 
customary, the guests sat reclining on lounges. Well, it was just 
one of these repasts that our Lord sat down to, along with the wealthy 
Simeon and his many guests. But no sooner had he entered than 
this woman followed him into the house, and fell down at his feet, 
and began to wash them with her tears. It was the custom in those 
days to wash one's feet on entering a house. Sandals were worn, 
and the practice was necessary. Well, this Avoman had got into the 
house by some means, and once inside had quietly stolen up to the 
feet of Jesus. And in her hands she brought a box. But her heart, 
too, was just as full of ointment as the box she carried; and there 
was the sweetest perfume as she stole to his feet. And her tears 
started to fall down on those sacred feet, hot, scalding tears that 
gushed out like water. She said nothing while the tears fell; and 
then she took down her long black hair, and wiped his feet with the 
hair of her head. And after that she poured out the ointment on 
his feet. Then straitway the Pharisees began talking together. 
How, all through the New Testament, these Pharisees keep whisper- 
ing and talking together. They said, shaking their heads, "This 
man receiveth sinners;" and then, "This man, if he were a prophet, 
would have known who and what manner of woman this is that 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 629 

toucheth him, for she is a sinner." No prophet, they insisted, would 
allow that kind of a woman near him, but would push her away. 
And then the Savior read these thoughts and quickly rebuked them. 
He said, "Simeon, I have something to say to thee." And he said, 
"Master, say on." / nd he said: "Seest thou this woman? I en- 
tered into thine house, thou gavest me no water to wash my feet; 
but she has washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the 
hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss; but this woman since I 
came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst 
not anoint; but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment." 
Simeon was like a great many Pharisees nowadays, who say: "Oh, 
well, we will entertain that minister, if we must. We don't want to; 
he's a dreadful nuisance; but we will have to put up with him; it's 
our duty to be patronizing." Well, the Master said more to his en- 
tertainer. "There was a certain creditor," he said, "which had two 
debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty, and 
when he had nothing to pay" — Mark that, sinner; the debtor had 
nothing to pay. There is no sinner in the world that can pay any- 
thing to cancel his debt to God. The great trouble is, that sinners 
think they can pay — some of them 75 cents on the dollar; some even 
feel able to pay 99 cents on the dollar, and the one cent that they 
are short, they think they can make that up some way. That 
is not the way; it is all wrong; you must throw all the debt on God. 
Some few, perhaps, will only claim to pay 25 cents on the dollar; 
but they are not humble enough either, they can't begin to carry out 
their bargain. Why, sinner, you couldn't pay one-tenth part of a 
single mill of the debt you are under to Almighty God. Now, it 
says in this parable, that they could not pay him anything; they 
had nothing to give, and the creditor frankly forgave them both, 
"Now, Simeon," the Master asked, "Which should love that man the 
most?" "I suppose," was the reply, "he that was forgiven the 
most." "Thou hast rightly judged; this woman loves much because 
she has been forgiven much." And went on to tell Simeon all about 
her; I suppose he wanted to make it plainer to Simeon. Then he 
turned to the poor woman, and said: " Thy sins are forgiven" — all 
forgiven ; not part of them; not half of them, but every sin from the 
cradle up, every impure desire or thought, is blotted out, for time 
and eternity. And he said, "Go in peace." Yes, truly; she went 
out in peace, for she went out in the light of heaven. With what 
brightness the light must have come down to her from those eternal 
hills; with what beauty it must have flashed on her soul. Yes, she 
came to the feet of the Master for a blessing, and she got it; and if 
there is a poor woman here to-night who wants a blessing, she will 
get it. 

I want to call your attention to a thought right here. You have 
not got the name of one of those poor women. The three women 
34 



530 



SALVATIOX FOR SINXEKS. 



who had fallen, who had been guilty of adultery, and had been bles- 
sed by him, not one of them has been named. It seems to me as if 
it had been intended that when they got to heaven we should not 
know them; they will just mingle with the rest. Their names had 
not been handed down for eighteen hundred years. They have call- 
ed Mary Magdalen a fallen woman ; but bear in mind there is noth- 
ing in Scripture to make us understand that she was a poor, fallen 
woman, and I believe if she had been, her name would not have been 
handed down. 

Now, the next woman was altogether different from the woman in 
Luke. She didn't come with an alabaster box, seeking a blessing. 
She was perfectly indifferent; she was a careless sinner. Perhaps, 
there are some poor, fallen women who have come to-night in a care- 
less spirit, only out of curiosity; they don't want a Savior; they 
don't want their sins blotted out; they don't want any forgiveness. 
Perhaps one had heard that at Moody and Sankey's they were going 
to preach repentance, and that a great many fallen women were 
likely to be there, and thought she would just come down to see 
how they took it. Now you have a representative here. After Christ 
had that interview with Nicodemus, we are told he went up to Gali- 
lee by Samaria. He could have gone up to Galilee without going 
to Samaria; but he knew there was a fallen women there. He got to 
the well, and sent off his disciples to get bread. Why did he not 
keep one with him? Because he knew the woman was coming that 
way, and she would not probably like to see so many. While he is 
sitting on the curb-stone of the well, a poor fallen woman of Sama- 
ria comes along for water. You know the people in those days used 
to come out in the morning and evening to get their water, not in 
the blaze of the noon-day sun. No doubt she was ashamed to come 
out there to meet the pure and virtuous at the well, and that was 
the reason why she stole out at that hour. She brought her water- 
pot to get water; and when she came up the Master stopped her 
and asked her for a drink, just to draw her out. She saw he was a 
Jew. We can always tell a Jew; God has put a mark upon them. 
" How is this? You a Jew, and ask a Samaritan for a drink? The 
Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." "Ah, you don't know 
me," he replied; "if you would have asked me for a drink I would 
have given you living water." " How could you give me living 
water; why you have no vessel to draw water with? 1 ' " Whosoever 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever shall drink- 
of the water that I shall give him will have a well springing up in 
his heart into everlasting life." " Well," probably she thought, 
"that in a good thing. One draught of water will give me a well — 
one draught of water for the rest of my days." She asked him for 
this living water, and he told her, "Go, bring thy husband." He 
was just drawing her out, just to get her up to the point of confes- 



SALVATION FOE SINNERS. 531 

sion. " I have no husband," she said. " For thou hast had five 
husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; in that 
saidst thou truly." I can see that woman's astonishment. She looks 
all around to see who had told him all about her. Like a man who 
came up from Michigan lately, who came into the Tabernacle and 
listened to the sermon which, as he told me, seemed all to be preach- 
ed at him. He wondered who had told me all about him. He got 
Christ, and is going back to Michigan to preach the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. The word of God reached her, and she saw she was detected, 
" Sir, 1 perceive thou art a prophet." Then she went on the old re- 
ligious discussion; but the Lord turned her from that, and told her 
that the hour had come when the people must worship the Father in 
spirit and in truth, not in this or that particular mountain, nor yet 
at Jerusalem. And she said: "When the Messiah cometh, he will 
tell us all things;" and when she had said this, she was ready for the 
truth. Then Jesus said, " I am the Messiah." Just then she saw 
his disciples coming, and probably she thought these men might 
know who she was; and she got up her pot, and away she went to 
the city. The moment she got within the gates she shouted: "Come 
see this man I have met at the well. Is not this the Messiah? Why, 
he has told me all that ever I did." And you can see all the men, 
women, and children running out of that city, up to the well. As 
he stands in the midst of his disciples, and he sees the multitudes 
coming running toward them, he says, "Look yonder; look at the 
fields, for they are already white with the harvest; look what that 
poor fallen woman has done." And he went into that town as an 
invited guest; and many believed on account of the woman's testi- 
mony, and many more believed on account of his own. 

Now, my friends, He did not condemn the poor adulteress. The 
Son of God was not ashamed to talk with her, and tell her of that 
living water, those who drank of which, he said, would never die. 
Be did not condemn her. He came to save her, came to tell her 
how to be blessed here and blessed hereafter. 

The next case is still much worse. You may say it is like black, 
blacker, blackest, compared with the other two. I want to speak 
about this one, that in the 8th chapter of John. One woman I have 
spoken of was in the house of a Pharisee, at a dinner party; the other 
by the well of Sychar; and now we come to the Temple porch. They 
had taken a woman in adultery, had caught her in the very act. 
They had not got the man; they had held only the poor woman. 
While he is speaking, the Pharisees are driving this poor fallen 
woman right into the Temple. What a commotion there would be 
here to-night, if such a scene would take place in the Tabernacle! 
She had broken the law of Moses, by which a woman caught in the 
act of adultery was to be put to death. The woman is brought to- 
ward him; and now they are about to put the question of her life or 



532 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 



death before him. He had said that he hadn't come to condemn the 
world, but to save the world; and they are just going to try and con- 
demn him by his own words. They say to him: " The law of Moses 
says stone her; what sayest thou?" But not a word did he speak. 
Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground, as though he hadn't 
heard them. We don't know what he wrote. Perhaps, "Grace and 
truth come by Jesus Christ;" perhaps he wrote that. But while He 
thus busied himself, they cried out the louder, demanding an answer 
to their question. So at length he lifted himself up and said: "He 
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." 
Never did an answer so completely serve its purpose. You who never 
were guilty of an offense, just you cast the first stone. And amid the 
strangest silence, he again stooped and wrote with his finger on the 
ground. This time, perhaps, he wrote: "I am not come to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance." And soon he rose again, but 
ere he did so he heard the patter of retreating feet on the pavement; 
and when now he glanced up, he saw none but the woman. One by 
one they had been convicted by their own conscience, and slunk 
away; not one of them there could throw the stone. And the Savior 
looked at the woman. I can imagine the tears coming trickling down 
her cheeks as Jesus Christ, in kindest tones, asked her: "Woman, 
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?" 
And for an instant she could not answer. Who knows how that 
poor soul had reached her sad plight! One of those very Pharisees 
who had left her, perhaps, had led her astray. The very man who 
had clamored loudest to condemn her was likely the guilty one. 
And there she stood alone. The betrayer was left untouched, as too 
often he is to-day; a miserable, unjust, untrue sentiment, by which 
the man, who is equally guilty, is received in society, and the woman 
is condemned. But at last she gained her voice and said: "No man, 
Lord." And then, perhaps, she told how her parents had died 
when she was very young; a stepmother, perhaps, had taken her and 
treated her harshly, and then had turned her adrift on the world. 
Or, perhaps, a drunken father had turned home into darkness, 
and she had been driven from it, almost broken-hearted; and so, in 
her helplessness, her innocent affections were gained, and then she 
had been led astray. The Master knew it all; and when he heard 
her reply, he said: " Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more." 
She had been dragged into the Temple to be stoned; but now Christ 
had delivered her. She came to be put to death, but she received 
life everlasting. 

My friends, the Son of God will not now condemn any poor fallen 
woman that leaves off her sins and just casts herself down at his feet. 
He will take you up. just as you are. When in Philadelphia, a fallen 
woman came into the inquiry room and threw herself down on the 
floor. The Christian helpers" talked and talked to her, but couldn't 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 533 

get a word out of her; they couldn't do a thing with her. Then 
George H. Stewart came to me, and said " We wish you would come, 
we don't know what to make of her." She was weeping bitterly; and 
as far off as I was, I could hear her sobs all over the room. So I 
went and said: " What is the trouble?" At last she spoke, and the 
bitterness of her despairing voice went to my heart. " I have fallen 
from everything pure, and God cannot save me; there is no hope." 
I told her tenderly that God could still lift her up and save her. I 
said: " Are you only just willing to be forgiven? A merciful Father 
is waiting and longing to pardon." She said, at last, she could not 
abandon her course, as no one would give her a home. But that 
difficulty was got round by my assuring her kind friends would pro- 
vide for her; and then she yielded, and that same day was given a 
pleasant place in the home of a Presbyterian minister. But, for for- 
ty-eight hours after entering her new home, that poor reclaimed 
woman cried, day and night; and we went for her mother, and on 
hearing our story the mother clasped her hands and cried: "Has my 
daughter really repented? Thank God for his mercy; my heart has 
just been breaking. I've prayed so long for her without result; take 
me to her." And that reformed daughter of sin has lived consist- 
ently ever since; and when I was last in Philadelphia, she was one 
of the most esteemed members in that Presbyterian church. And 
so every one of you can begin anew; and God will help, and man 
will help you. Oh turn, and do not die. Seven short years is the 
allotted life of a fallen woman. Oh, escape your early doom, escape 
your infamy, and hear God's voice calling you to repent. Your res- 
olution to amend will be borne up by hosts of friends; never fear for 
that. Just take the decisive step, and you will be helped by every 
good man and woman in the community. Oh, I beseech you to act 
right now and settle this great question, for time and eternity. 

I heard of a mother, whose daughter was led astray; and the poor 
daughter tried to hide herself, thinking her mother would not for- 
give her. The mother went to the town where she supposed her 
child had gone; but she hunted and hunted unsuccessfully. The 
trouble is, with the most of those girls who go astray, they go under 
assumed names; and this daughter had done the same thing, and 
that mother couldn't find her. At last, she found a place where 
fallen women resorted to; and the mother went to the keeper of that 
place and begged her to let her hang up her picture in the room, and 
consent was granted. Hundreds of fallen women came into that 
room, and carelessly glanced at the picture, and went out. Weeks 
and months rolled on, until at length, one night, a poor fallen girl 
came into the room. She was going out as careless as she had en- 
tered, when her eye caught the picture; and, gazing at it for a mo- 
ment, she burst into a flood of tears. " Where did you get it?" she 
Bobbed. They told her how her mother came there, heart-broken, 



534 SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 

and asked to have her picture hung up in that room, in the hope of 
finding her daughter. The girl's memory went back to her days of 
peace and purity, recalling the acts of kindness of that loved mother; 
and she then and there resolved to return. See how that mother 
sought for her, and forgave her. Oh, poor fallen. ones, the Son of 
God is seeking for you to-night. If you haven't got a mother to 
pray for you, the Son of God wants to be everything to you. He 
wants to receive you himself. Let me hold him up to you as your 
best friend. He wants to take you to his loving bosom; and this 
very night and very hour you can be raised, if you will. There was 
a woman who was trying to get a poor girl to go back to her home. She 
said: "Neither my mother, my father, nor my brothers will forgive 
me. They won't permit me to go back." " Will you give me your 
address?" the lady asked. The address was obtained, and the very 
next post brought a letter marked " Immediately;" and it seemed as 
if the whole hearts of her father and mother and brothers were 
poured out in that letter. It was filled with kindness, and urged 
her to come home and all would be forgotten. There is many a 
poor fallen girl in Chicago whose mother is praying for her, and 
whose heart is aching because she won't go back. Your mother will 
forgive you, and all your friends, if you will only show true signs of 
repentance. They will take you home. 

O my friends, let this be the last night you will live in sin — in 
shame. Let this be your last night in which you will live in sin. 
Take those sins you have to him, and he will forgive you. He has 
said: " Let the wicked forsake his ways," and pardon is ready. That 
is what our Lord will do. He will pardon you and make you pure. 
Will you let him pardon you to-night? 

Just before coming down this evening, I received a letter from a 
fallen woman. I've received a number during the past few days. 
Thank God, the spirit is at work among that class! And let me say, 
right here, if there is any person here who keeps a brothel, if you 
will allow Christian ladies admittance, they will go gladly and hold 
meetings. This idea that Christian ladies do not care for your class 
is false — as false as the blackest lie that ever came out of hell. Why, 
some of the first ladies of the city have lately been visiting these 
houses personally, and have been trying to save their erring sisters. 
A few days ago, several came to me and asked if I couldn't get a 
list of all the brothels of the city. I went to police head-quarters 
and got the names of the keepers and addresses, and gave it to these 
Christian women; and since then, many houses have been visited. 
These charges that Christian women will not have them in their 
homes are equally false. The other night, a lady of culture was on 
her knees with a poor one, who told the lady that she was a fallen 
girl, and did not know where to go if she didn't go back to her 
brothel. "Come and stay at my house," said the lady, "I will take 



SALVATION FOR SINNERS. 635 

care of you;" and when the girl got up from her knees, the lady saw 
she was a poor colored girl. That [good Christian kept her till she 
got her a good situation. Another one not long ago received the truth, 
and one of our ministers wrote to her parents, got a pass, and sent 
her home to her forgiving parents. Let me ask you not to believe 
that we are cruel; that we are hard-hearted; that we do not care for 
the fallen women, but only for the abandoned men. We have a place 
to shelter you; and if that is not large enough, the business men will 
put up another. They will do everything for you, if you are only 
repentant; they will not try to keep you down and cast you off. 
If you are sincere, there are hundreds and thousands of people in 
this city whose hearts will go out to you. But I want to read this 
letter: 

Chicago, Dec. 14. 

" Mr. Moody, — -Many fallen women in this city would, in these 
days, gladly change their mode of life, and seek Christ and restora- 
tion to the homes and hearts of parents and friends whom they, 
weakly, left many, many bitter years and months ago, if only they 
could see some way to an honorable living, and friendly recognition 
and help when they should seek these." 

Now, let me say here that any young woman who wants reclama- 
tion ought not to look into the future, say to yourselves, " I will be 
saved to-night, come what will." 

"You say, 'Seek first the kingdom of Christ;' but, my dear 
brother (for such you seem even to me), why do this if only return- 
ing shame awaits us?" 

I wish every fallen woman would think as this one does; why, I 
would be a brother to you all. Thank God, I've got a brother's 
heart for all of you. I wish every one of you would feel that I want 
to-do you good — that I only want to lift you up. 

" Suppose a hundred fallen women of this city were at the Taber- 
nacle to-night — no doubt more than this number will be there; and 
that these should seek Christ and find forgiveness, for you assure us 
there is full forgiveness for even us, so that these scarlet stains should 
be 'whiter than snow' — where, I ask, will we live? What shall we 
do?" 

"We must return ere the echo of the last prayer in that Taberna- 
cle has died away, to the apartments which have only known our 
bitter shame, and again meet the devil in his chosen home." 

Let me say, again, that no woman in this audience need do that. 
There will be homes open for you. God will provide for you, if you 
will trust him. I hope there will be hundreds here to-night who will 
say: "I will never return to that place. I will never go back to that 
house of shame; I will never meet the devil in those houses more; I 
will rather die in the poor-house than do it; I turn my back for ever 
upon death and hell." 



536 come. 

"No home of parent or friend, or praying Christian who joined in 
your prayer at the Tabernacle for us, would offer our weary bodies 
shelter there, or our willing hands labor, wherewith honest bread 
might be earned. No Christian's purse affords to-morrow's bread." 

Dear friends, let the morrow take care of itself. Don't be looking 
at the future. Just walk by faith; that's what every Christian must 
do. 

" The very ones who came here to pray for us go away scorning 
us; and while, with the virtuous wife and mother and the pure 
maiden, we would plead a common Savior, they would thrust us from 
them. What can we do? Who will help us? 

" There remains only a life of shame and an unwept death, phys- 
ical and eternal, for us. Hopelessly, 

"One op Them." 



"COME." 

"Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear, and your souls shall live." Isaiah 55-3. 

We have for our subject this afternoon the precious little word 
" Come." I want to call your attention first to the " Come " in the 
55th chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah. " Incline your ear, and 
come unto me. Hear, and your souls shall live; and I will make an 
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." 

" Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your souls shall 
live." Now, I find if we get people to listen — to pause and hear the 
voice of God, it isn't long before they are willing to follow that voice; 
but it is so hard to get people to stop and listen, for a moment. The 
din of the world makes such a noise that the people don't hear the 
voice — that still small voice. He says, "Incline your ear and come 
unto me." Now, if we could only get all the friends in this audience 
to incline their ears this afternoon — not only your natural ears, but 
the ears of your soul, you could be saved to-day. But Satan does 
not want you to do this; he does all he can to keep your ears from 
hearing. He makes you think about yourself, about your sons, your 
homes; but, my friends, let us forget all of those things to-day. Let 
us forget all our surroundings, and close our eyes to the world, and 
just try and listen to the word of God, and come and hear what he 
has to say. "Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your 



comb. 537 

soul shall live." Now, let us turn to the 10th chapter of Romans, 
where we see, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word 
of God." Now, it is not my words I want to have you to listen to; 
it is not my words I want you to hear this afternoon; but I want you 
to hear the words of this loving King, who calls you to himself. 
What does he say? In another place he says: "Behold, I stand at 
the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I 
will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me;" or "if any 
woman," or any one; that's what it means, my friends — "hear my 
voice and opeu the door, I will come in to her, and will sup with her, 
and she with me." I heard of a little child, some time ago, who was 
burned. The mother had gone out and left her three children at 
home. The eldest left the room, and the remaining two began to 
play with the fire, and set the place in a blaze. When the youngest 
of the two saw what she had done, she went into a little cupboard 
and fastened herself in. The remaining child went to the door and 
knocked and knocked, crying to her to open the door and let her 
take her out of the burning building; but she was too frightened to 
do it. It seems to me as if this was the way with hundreds and thou- 
sands in this city. He stands and knocks; but they've got their 
hearts barred and bolted, because they don't know that he has come 
only to bless them. May God help you to hear; and if you listen to 
him and bring your burdens to him he will bless you. He is able to 
open the ears of every one here if you let him in. I was up here at 
the hotel the other night, and I had the door locked and bolted, and 
some one came and rapped. I shouted, "Come in!" The man tried 
to come in, but he couldn't; I had to get up and unlock the door 
before he could enter. That's the way with many people to-day. 
They've got the door bolted and barred; but if you only open it to 
him, he will come in. 

" If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and 
sup with him, and he with me." Now, my friends, can you hear it? 
Can you hear God's voice speaking through his own word? "In- 
cline your ear and come unto me." Just listen. You know some- 
times, when you hear a man speaking whose voice you don't hear 
very well, and you want to hear every word the man says, you put 
your hand up to your ear to catch the sound clearer. Now listen. 
God says, " Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your souls 
shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you." Now, 
is it not true? Can't you hear that loving voice speaking to you, 
and won't you obey that voice and let him save you? But I can 
imagine some of you saying, " I can't hear anything." Take your 
ears to him and he will make you hear. 

Now let me take you to another course. While John and his dis- 
ciples were standing, Jesus came along and John said, " Behold the 
Lamb of God!" and Jesus said, " What seek ye?" " Where dwellest 



538 come. 

thou?" he asked; to which He replied: "Come and see;" and they 
just obeyed him, and never left him. My friends, if I could intro- 
duce you to Christ — could just get you to catch one glimpse of him; 
if you could but see the King in all his beauty; if you could but 
see him in all his loveliness, jou would never forsake him, for, "He 
shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry 
ground." Follow him, as your Savior. In order to appreciate him, 
you have to be brought to him; but if sin has come between you and 
him, I cannot tell you anything about him. It is just like telling a 
blind man about the beauties of nature, the loveliness of the flowers, 
or of the world. That is the way, if sin stands between you and 
him, and when Christians try to tell you about the beauties of Chris- 
tianity they fail; but if you come and have an interview with him, 
you will see that you cannot help but love him; you will see that 
you cannot but forsake all and follow him. I remember once hear- 
ing of a child who was born blind. He grew up to be almost a man, 
when a skillful physician thought he could give the man his sight. 
He was put under the doctor's treatment, and for a long time he 
worked, till at last he succeeded. But he wouldn't .let the man see 
the light of the sun all at once, lest it would strike him blind. It 
had to be done gradually. So he put a lot of bandages upon his 
Yyes, and removed one after another until the last one was reached; 
and when it was taken off, the young man began to see. When he 
saw the beauties of the world, he upbraided his friends for not tell- 
ing him of the beauties of nature. " Why, we tried to tell you about 
the beauties of the world, but we could not," they said. And so it 
is with us. All that we can do is to tell you to come and see; come 
and see the loveliness of Christ. 

I can imagine some of you saying: "1 am blind, I cannot see 
any beauty in him." Bring your blindness to him, as you 
bring your deafness, and he will give you sight, as he did with the 
blind Bartimeus; as he did with all the blind men on earth. There 
was never a blind man who came to him requesting his sight, whose 
request was not gra< ted; and there is not a blind soul in this assem- 
bly but will be healed, if you come to him. He says that's what he 
came for, to give sight to the blind. If you cannot see any beauty 
in him pray to God to give you sight. 

The next " Come" is in the prophesies of Isaiah. " Come, now, 
and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as 
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crim- 
son, they shall be as wool." I find a great many people say their 
reason stands between them and God. Now, let me say here, the 
religion of Jesus is a matter of revelation, not of investigation. No 
one ever found out Christ by reason; it is a matter of revelation. 
Now see what he says, "Come now" — that means this afternoon — 
" though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." Now 



come. 639 

he puts a pardon in the sinner's face. "Your sins may be as scarlet, 
they shall be white as snow." Take the scarlet in that lady's shawl; 
it is a fast color. You cannot wash it out and make it white; if you 
tried, you would only destroy the shawl. But he will make your 
sins white as snow, though they be as scarlet, if you come to him. 
Just come to him as you are; and instead of reasoning, ask him to 
take them away. Then, he will reason it out with you. The natu- 
ral man does not understand spiritual things; but when a man is 
born of the Spirit, then it is that the spiritual things are brought out 
to him. A great many people want to investigate — want to reason 
out the Bible from back to back; but he wants us first to take a par- 
don. That's God's method of reasoning. He puts a pardon in the 
face of the sinner: " Come, now." Do you think there is not reason 
in this? Suppose the whole plan of salvation was reasoned out to 
you, why death might step in before the end of the reasoning was 
reached. So God puts a pardon first. If you will be influenced to- 
day, you will just bring your reason to him; and ask him to give you 
wisdom to see divine things; and he will do it. " If any of you lack 
wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and up- 
braideth not, and it shall be given him, liberally. The idea that this 
reason that God hath given man should keep him from Christ! A 
number of years ago, as I was coming out of a daily prayer meeting 
in one of our Western cities, a lady came up to me and said: "I want 
to have you see my husband, and ask him to come to Christ." She 
said, " I want to have you go and see him." She told me his name, 
and it was of a man I had heard of before. " Why," said I, " I can't 
go and see your husband. He is a booked infidel, I can't argue with 
him. He is a good deal older than I am, and it would be out of 
place. Then I am not much for infidel argument." " Well, Mr. 
Moody," she says, " That ain't what he wants, he's got enough of 
that. Just ask him to come to the Savior." She urged me so hard 
and so strong, that I consented to go, I went to the office where 
the Judge was doing business, and told him what I had come for. 
He laughed at me. " You are very foolish," he said, and began to 
argue with me. I said: "I don't think it will be profitable for me 
to hold an argument with you. I have just one favor I want to ask 
of you; and that is, that when you are converted you will let me 
know." "Yes," said he, "I will do that. When I am converted, I 
will let you know" — with a good deal of sarcasm. I went off, and 
requests for prayers were sent here and to Fulton street, New York; 
and I thought the prayer there and of that wife would be answered, 
if mine were not. A year and a half after, I was in that city, and a 
servant came to the door and said: "There is a man in the front 
parlor who wishes to see you." I found the Judge there. He said: 
" I promised J would let you know when I was converted. I've 
been converted." "Well," said I, "I'm glad to hear it! tell me all 



540 COMB. 

about it." I had heard it from other lips, but I wanted to hear it 
from his own. He said his wife had gone out to a meeting one night, 
and he was home alone; and while he was sitting there by the tire, 
he thought: "Suppose my wife is right, and my children are right; 
suppose there is a heaven and a hell, and I shall be separated from 
them." His first thought was, " I don't believe a word of it." The 
second thought came: "You believe in the God that created you, 
and the God that created you is able to teach you. You believe 
that God can give you life." " Yes, the God that created me can 
give me life. I was too proud to get down on my knees by the fire, 
and I said, 'O God, teach me.' And as I prayed, I don't understand 
it, but it began to get very dark, and my heart got very heavy. I 
was afraid to tell my wife when she came to bed, and I pretended 
to be asleep. She kneeled down beside that bed, I knew she 
was praying for me. I kept crying: 'O God, save me; O God, take 
away this burden;' but it grew darker, and the load grew heavier 
and heavier. All the way to my office I kept crying ' O God, take 
away this load of guilt;' I gave my clerks a holiday, and just closed 
my office and locked the door. 1 fell down on my face; I cried in 
agony to the Lord, 'O Lord, for Christ's sake, take away this guilt.' 
I don't know how it was, but it began to grow very light. I said: 'I 
wonder if this isn't what they call conversion. I think I will go and 
ask the minister if I am not converted.' I met my wife at the door 
and said, ' My dear, I've been converted.' She looked in amaze- 
ment. 'Oh it's a fact; I've been converted!' We went into that 
drawing-room and knelt down by the sofa and prayed to God to 
bless us." The old Judge said to me, the tears trickling down his 
cheeks: " Mr. Moody, I've enjoyed life more in the last three months 
than in all the years of my life put together." If there is an infidel 
here — if there is a skeptical one here, ask God to give you wisdom 
to come now. Let us reason together; and if you become acquainted 
with God, the day will not go before you receive light from him. 

The next " Come" I want to call your attention to is a very sweet 
one. He says, " Come and reason," "Come and see;" and now we 
have, " Come and rest." What this world wants is rest. Every 
man, every woman, is in pursuit of it; and how many of us have 
found? How many are bearing burdens about our hearts always; 
how many have come into this hall to-day with a great burden on 
their hearts? What does he say: "Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Now a great many 
people have an idea that they get rid of their burdens themselves; 
but they must come to him, if they want to be relieved. That's what 
Christ came for. Come to him. "He hath borne our griefs and 
carried our sorrows." There could not be a sweeter " Come" than 
this. How many mothers are bearing burdens for their children; 
how many because of their sons; or, perhaps, you have husbands who 



COME. 541 

have proved unfaithful; or may be you are widows, who have been 
without support. The future may look dark to you; but hear the 
loving voice of the Savior: " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." There is not a soul here — I 
don't care what the burden may be — in this vast audience, but can 
lay their burden on the Lord Jesus Christ; and he will bear it for 
you. We can be released; we have found a resting place, and that 
is in the loving bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a hymn 
written by Dr. Andrew Bonar, which can express this much better 
than I can. Let me read it: 

I heard the voice of Jesus say : 

u Come unto me and rest ; 
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 

Thy head upon my breast." 

I came to Jesus as I was, 

Weary and worn and sad ; 
I found in him a resting-place, 

And he has made me glad. 

I heard the voice of Jesus say: 

" Behold L freely give 
The living water — thirsty one, 

Stoop down and di ink and live !" 

I came to Jesus and I drank 

Of that life-giving stream; 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived 

And now I live in him. 

I heard the voice of Jesus say : 

" i am this dark world's light; 
Look unto me, thy morn shall rise, 

And all thy day be bright." 

I looked at Jesus and I found 

In him my Star, my Sun. 
And in that light of Life I'll walk 

Till traveling days are done. 

O, my friends, if you want rest to-day, come to him. He stands 
with his arms outstretched and says: "Come to me and rest." 
Does the world satisfy you? Are not the griefs of this world crush- 
ing many a heart here? Hear the voice of Jesus, "Come and rest." 
The world cannot take it from you; the world's crosses and trials 
will not tear it from you; he will give you peace and comfort and 
rest, if you but come. 

The next "Come" is "Come and drink and eat." You don't have 
to pay anything. You know it is hard for a man to get a tax on 
water unless when it has to be brought into the city. But this water 



542 come, 

is always without price, and salvation is like a river, flowing at the 
feet of every one; and all you have to do is to stoop down and drink 
of t/rs living water, and never die. The world cannot give you 
comfort — cannot give you water to satisfy your thirst, and every 
man and woman in this world is thirsty. That's the way our places 
of amusement are filled People are constantly thirsting for some- 
thing. But how are they filled with those amusements? They are 
as thirsty as ever. But if they drink the waters that he offers, they 
will have a fountain in them springing up into everlasting life. I 
remember coming down a river with some wounded soldiers. The 
water was very muddy; and as we had no filters, they had to drink 
the dirty water, which did not satisfy their thirst. I remember a 
soldier saying, "Oh that I had a draught of water from my father's 
well." If you drink of the living water, your soul will never thirst 
again. Not only does he say, " Come and drink of that living 
water," but he says, "Come and eat." In the 55th chapter of Isaiah 
you are invited to come and eat. You know all that the children of 
Israel had to do in the wilderness was just to pick up the manna and 
eat. They didn't have to make it. And people had just to stoop 
down and pick up the manna and eat, and drink from the flinty rock 
when the water flowed. And to-day the provision is brought to the 
door of our hearts. You haven't to go down to the earth for it, 
or to go up to the skies for it. It is here ; and all you've got to do 
is to eat. 

You know almost the last words of Christ after his resurrection, 
when, having a little fish, he said to his disciples, " Come and dine.'* 
Oh, what a sweet invitation — the invitation of the Master to his dis- 
ciples, " Come and dine." 1 invite you now to come and dine with 
him; he will quench that thirst; he will satisfy your hunger, and 
all youv'e got to do is to take him at his word. 

Is there a poor thirsty one here to-day? I bid you come and drink 
of the fountain of living water; 1 bid you come and eat of the 
heavenly bread; yes, the bread made in heaven, the bread that an- 
gels feed on. Christ himself is the bread of life. 

Now, a many people make a great mistake about accepting Christ. 
They think they've got something to do; they think they've got to 
do some work, or that they've got to pray and wrestle before taking 
him; they think it is a question of performance whether they are 
saved or not. Now, it is a question of simply taking what God offers 
you. I remember, when I was out on the Pacific coast, a man took 
me thro'igh his house, out on his lands, and showed me his orchards, 
and then said: "Mr. Moody, you are a guest of mine, and I want 
you to feel perfectly at home; do what you like." Well, after this 
man said this, you don't suppose if I wanted an orange I was going 
under the tree to pray that it would fall into my pocket? I just 
went up boldly and plucked what I wanted. And so the bread of 



come. 548 

aeaven is offered to us; and all we've got to do is to go boldly up 
and take it. This is what God wants you to do. Everything is pre- 
pared for you. 

There is a class, too, who say, " But I'm afraid I'll not bold out." 
How many people are stumbling over this! Now, if you come 
boldly up to the throne you'll get all the support you need: "Let 
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may ob- 
tain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." There is a pas- 
sage for you; that ought to be sufficient. And there is not a woman 
here to-day but can be kept, from this very day and this very hour, 
from evil. " For I the Lord thy God will keep you, without spot or 
wrinkle, and without blemish." Some of the vilest men who have 
ever trodden this earth have been saved by the grace of God. Some- 
have been kept sixty or seventy years merely by the grace of God, 
and never wavered. "Come boldly to the throne of grace," and you 
will get power. That is sufficient. Won't you take him at his word? 
It seems to me that it is madness not to take the gift offered us by 
God. 

Let me call attention to another "Come." My friends, the 
Bible is full of them, and you can't say, if you don't come, there 
have been no invitations. He says. "Come to the marriage." Now, 
you young ladies like marriages pretty well. Let a marriage come 
off in a church, and hundreds will be there; and probably next night, 
at the prayer meeting, there will scarcely be a dozen of you present. 
Now, here is a marriage; and there is not a lady here whom God 
does not want to be present at the marriage feast. There is an in- 
vitation. And here is another "Come": "Come and inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world." God 
has got on inheritance for every one of you. The time will soon 
come, if you accept Christ and become as his bride, when you shall 
hear the voice of him saying to you: " Come and inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you, from the foundation of the world." What a mis- 
take it will be, my friends, if you will not hear that invitation given 
to you! There is an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens, a 
building not made with hands, and he wants every one to enter into 
this inheritance; and so it is your privilege to be present at the mar- 
riage feast, and receive the inheritance, if you will. 

You know the first " Come " in the Bible is in regard to salvation. 
It was given to Noah. God said, " Come thou, and all thy house, 
into the ark;" not a part of them, but "all thy house." That is the 
first "Come," in the Bible; and all through that blessed book it is re- 
peated. And now we come to the last one. It seems as if the Bi- 
ble was created by this word " Come." " The Spirit and the bride 
say "Come; and let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely." There is our invitation, as 
broad as the world itself. And if God says you are to come in there, 



544 come. 

no power in heaven, or earth, or hell can stop you! He bids you 
come. Now, bear in mind, it is your sins God wants, and not your 
faith. You have nothing about you that he wants except your sins. 
People are continually trying to come to him by their faith, by their 
feelings, by their tears, by their good deeds, by their works; but you 
have to come to him just as you are. There is not a woman present 
but can roll off every sin and leave them in this Tabernacle. 

Now the question comes, What right have you to come? Why, 
because the King invites you. Suppose Queen Victoria had sent 
me an invitation to be present at Windsor, at a feast given in honor 
of the marriage of one of her sons to a princess of Russia! I take 
the cars to New York, then the boat to Liverpool ; then I would run 
down to London, where I would get the train to Windsor Castle. 
There is a sentry walking up and down in front of the gate. If I 
hadn't my invitation, he would refuse me admittance; but there is 
not a soldier in the British army can keep me out, because I've got 
the Queen's invitation. But suppose the man looks at me and says: 
"You can't go into the presence of the Queen with those clothes; 
you are not fit to stand before the Queen." That is none of his 
business; that's hers. So the invitation comes from him, and he 
wants you to come, and he will clothe you in garments fit for his 
presence. You will be stripped of every rag of self-righteousness, and 
a robe of spotlessness will be put upon you. 

A great many people say, " I want to become clean before I come 
to Christ." Now, my friends, that is the devil's work. He tries to 
get people to believe that they can't come without getting rid of 
their sins; but, as I've said, all through the scriptures he bids you 
come as you are. We cannot take away our sins; come to him and 
he will blot them out. A few years ago, in London, there used to 
be a good many little children stolen to act as chimney-sweeps. A 
child was stolen from a wealthy family, and a great reward was 
offered; but it couldn't be found. This child had been kidnapped. 
One day he was sent up a chimney and came down on the other side, 
and into a beautiful room. The little fellow was bewildered. A lady 
was sitting there and recognized him as her son ; and although the 
little fellow was covered with smut, she ran to him, and drew him to 
her bosom; and that is the way Christ will receive you. You needn't 
try to get rid of one particle of sin; he wants to save you as you are. 
" Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the waters of life freely." 
Will you come to-day? The spirit and the bride invite you this af- 
ternoon. 

Now I want to ask you what are you going to do with these ten 
loving invitations to-day — "Come and hear;" "Come and see;" 
"Come and reason;" "Come and rest;" "Come and eat and drink;" 
"Come aud dine;" "Come and find grace;" "Come unto the mar- 
riage;" " Come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 



work. 545 

foundation of the world;" "Whosoever will, let him come." Ask 
God to help you to come to-day. If I were in your place, I would 
settle this question before I left this building; I would just press up 
to the kingdom of God, and take him at his word. Now would you 
just all lift up your hearts in prayer. Let every Christian pray for 
every soul here to-day out of Christ. Let us now just unite in this 
one petition, that every soul in this building may come to Christ 
to-day. 



WORK. 

" Faith without works is dead." Jambs 2 : 20. 

I want to speak this morning about work. You know that was 
the key-note of the meeting when we first commenced here; and we 
want to have it the key-note of our message as we leave. Faith is 
an act of the mind, and work is the outward sign of faith. If a man 
has true faith in Christ, he cannot help working for Christ. You 
cannot have fire without heat; no more can you have faith without 
works. "Faith without works," the apostle tells us, "is dead." It 
is dead, and the quicker buried the better; get it out of the way. 
The moment that fails in work, that moment it dies. " Show me 
thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my 
works." If a man has faith in Christ he cannot help working; it is 
second nature to him. Those men who are trying to serve Christ 
without works, are having a pretty hard time of it. They neither 
enjoy the world nor the church, and have a great deal of contempt 
for themselves. Now when a man gets outside of himself and goes 
to work for others, he is trebly blessed; he has floods of love, and 
peace, and joy the whole of the time. People may get to heaven 
without works perhaps; but as Job says, it will be " by the skin of 
their teeth." It'll not be an abundant entrance that will be admin- 
istered unto them. And what they did do, if not with a right mo- 
tive, will be swept away in that hour when God comes and tries 
men's faith. 

Faithful Christians are those heeding Christ's words in the gospel 
according to John, 15th chapter and 4th and 5th verses: "Abide in 
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except 
35 



546 work. 

it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am 
the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him,, 
the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do noth- 
ing." There, in that chapter, it says in the 2nd verse: "And every 
branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more 
fruit." So it is abiding in Christ that bringeth forth much fruit. I 
think you will find in all the churches those who bring forth 
scarcely anything; I was going to say nothing. I don't know how 
you can call them Christians. Again, there are others who bring 
forth, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred; and it is 
those Christians that abide in Christ that bring forth an hundred- 
fold: they can't help it. When a branch abideth in the vine, it pro- 
duces good fruit. You have a good apple-tree, and it can't help 
bearing apples; it can't help bringing forth good fruit. So every 
Christian is to abide continually in Christ; not through four or five 
weeks, when there are special services, but through the three hun- 
dred and sixty-five days in the year. These special meetings here 
are about drawing to a close; and some here this morning are per- 
haps asking, what is going to become of us, what are we going to 
do? Some perhaps tremble lest they shall go back to their old luke- 
warmness. Now my friends, if you are going to truly work for 
Christ, you must carry this revival spirit in your bosom throughout 
the 365 days, throughout all the j^ear. If a man cannot be used of 
God, what does he want to live for? It is the privilege of every child 
of God to be revived all the time. That is what we want to do. 
Why, in the primitive days, there were added daily to the Lord, such 
as should be saved. If we abide in the Lord, there will be just such 
results now. The trouble lies in our going away from the Lord, so 
that the Lord cannot use us, and we cannot bring forth fruit. 
How are we to abide in Christ? Study the Word of God. It is the 
only book that tells about Christ. The Bible is God's word; and 
if you want to know about Christ, study in its pages about his life, 
his character, his acts. Find out who he is, and what he is. The 
man that is abiding with Christ would rather be with him than with 
the world; he would far rather be an hour with the Word of God, 
than a year in worldly society. 

Look at the 3d chapter of the 2d epistle to Timothy, 15th, 16th, 
and 17th verses: "And that from a child thou hast known the 
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by 
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
rection, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may 
be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Just listen: 
" That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works." And with this let me read those words from the 
1st chapter of James, 22d verse: "But be ye doers of the Word 



work. 547 

and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." If we had as 
many doers of the Word as we have hearers, in Chicago, what a 
mighty work could be done. You have been pretty good, yes, very 
good hearers; but I have a pretty serious charge to bring against nine 
out of every ten of you. You have come here, but when the benediction 
was through, you have just got on your hats, and gathered up your 
shawls, and got out as quick as you could. You haven't liked to 
talk to inquirers. Some of you are Christians of thirty or forty years 
standing. You have listened to sermons all these years, and gone 
Sunday after Sunday, to the regular services of the sanctuary; but 
what have you been personally doing? That's the question? Oh, 
be not only hearers, but doers; that is just the working spirit we 
want in Chicago now. We have had eleven weeks of these special 
meetings, and many of you have listened remarkably well. For 
eleven weeks, you've been listening; and now's the time for action. 
Now's the time to be doers of the Word; you've been hearers long- 
enough. Let every one put a shoulder to the work, and push it on. 
These past three months have been spent in getting the army ready 
and equipped; now let it move ahead. Let all take up and carry on 
the work. Let Christians wake up and go to work. More conver- 
sions may be made in the next three months than in the last three,, 
if you Christians will do your duty. 

I have heard some say, " Yes, but I haven't got the ability." God 
will strengthen you, my friends. God is with you, and all you have 
to do is to ask of him, wisdom, power, and strength. The God of all- 
power and might is at your side, if you call on him. Don't you see, 
if each one of you does but a little, how much you will accomplish? 
Mr. Spurgeon said to some discouraged students, as they were going- 
out to preach: "Well, just go ahead, there's a good many of you; 
you go into the churches, and you find a great many Christians there ; 
and whan all are gathered together, there's a great deal of strength." 
And then he illustrated by telling about Moses and the frogs: "I'll 
bring great frogs on you," said Moses to Pharaoh. " Frogs, what do 
I care for frogs!" "But," said Moses, "there's a good many of 
them;" and the old king found it out. They swarmed into his bed- 
chamber, jumped into the kneading trough, sprawled out upon the 
throne, so he could not sit down; they got onto the royal table, into 
the royal lap — frogs, frogs, frogs, everywhere; he couldn't step with- 
out "squashing" one. Yes, there were a good many of them; and 
there are a good many Christians. Let them just take a look at the 
frogs of Egypt; let them just go into every room and corner and 
attic in Chicago, and bring them the blessed Gospel. Don't you see 
how much, if you are only united, may be done in the next three 
months? Oh, be ye doers, and not hearers only. " If any be a hearer 
of the Word," says James, " And not a doer, he is like unto a man 
beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and 



548 work. 

goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man ho 
was. But whosoever looketh into the perfect law of liberty and con- 
tinueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the 
work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." 

Now what we want, my friends, is to get to work. A great many 
people are called pillars of the church, because they pay their pew 
rents. They never go out to Wednesday night meetings; you never 
think of seeing them there. They will get out every fine Sunday 
morning; but no one expects they will turn out on Sunday night. 
But they say they've '"the root of the matter in them." Suppose 
you have a flower garden, and take a friend out to see the flowers; 
but there isn't one to be seen. Will you say, " Well, it's just all 
full of roots." You might say so just as properly as the fruitless 
Christian. The root of the matter is down there, sure enough; but 
there's never anything crops out. These " do-less" Christians, these 
drones, doing nothing, are too numerous; there's too many of these 
" pillars" in the church. We want workers; we want these men to 
come out, and then help bring others out. The time is coming when, 
if people will not come and hear the gospel, the churches must go to 
them. Let workers go and seek them out, and hold cottage prayer- 
meetings at their houses, and talk with them about Christ and 
heaven. Be ye doers. 

A great many people would be workers, but they are afraid of be- 
ing called "odd." They want just Christianity enough to make 
them respectable, but enough of the world to keep them from being 
considered odd or peculiar. The result is, they're wretched people 
in the world. They have no spiritual power. They never take a 
class in the Sunday-school; or, if they do, there are no conversions 
in it. They forget those words in Titus, 2d chapter, 14th verse, 
*' Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity 
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good .works." 
Now, I am a poor sailor; I never go on the sea but I get sick; yet I 
think I would be willing to sail around the whole world to find an 
entire church — minister, deacons, stewards, all the church officers 
and members — a " peculiar" people of this sort. I would find a 
church that would make the world tremble. I don't believe the 
world ever saw a church all of the members "peculiar." You find 
in every age, when God wants any work done, he always brings out 
a peculiar man. I suppose Elijah was the most peculiar man, per- 
haps, that ever lived. He was the oddest genius that people ever 
hit upon. Daniel was the most peculiar man in all Babylon. The 
courtiers of Nebuchadnezzar undoubtedly called him puritanical 
and a bigot. Yes, in the midst of idolaters, this old Hebrew was a 
praying man; but how God blessed him. Moses was the most pecu- 
liar man in Egypt; but how God blessed him. Always the men and 
women most used of God have been peculiar; and Christian workers 



WOKK. 549 

must be peculiar. But that is just what mctny don't want; they're 
afraid people will say they are peculiar. Now let me say, no man or 
woman is fit to work for God until they become peculiar in this Bi- 
ble sense, — until they give up sinful, worldly pleasures, and separate 
themselves, to live and work for God. Then see how God will bless 
them. God grant that all may become chosen vessels, and meet for 
the Master's use. 

Then in Titus, 3d chapter, 1st verse: "Put them in mind to be 
subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, and to be 
ready for every good work." "Ready for all good works;" if all 
heeded this, what could not be done! How many times I have been 
down at these meetings, night after night, and have spoken to Chris- 
tian people who have been here, — some of them professing his name 
for forty years, — and asked them to speak to some poor inquirer's 
soul; but the answers come: " O Mr. Moody, don't ask me! don't 
you ask me." They've been in the church these long years, and 
can't say a word to dying souls! Shame on the , Christianity of the 
Nineteenth century! May God have mercy on each one of us, and 
forgive us our shortcomings! These people want to have you talk 
about their souls, and tell them the way of life. If it is not a good 
work to talk to a soul burdened with sin, what is a good work? 
What have these church members been about, all these years? What 
have they been doing, that they are not ready now, after fifteen, 
thirty and forty years of professedly Christian life, to talk with 
anxious souls? When will you be ready? O my friends, will you 
not get ready at once? What power is there in the greatest army 
in the world, if it don't know how to use its weapons? An army of 
five hundred real soldiers could rout them and send them all flying. 
What each child of God wants is, to get ready. If there is one 
Christian in this place, this morning, that has not had the joy of 
bringing a soul to God, I would not go out of this Tabernacle until 
1 had gone into one of the inquiry-rooms, and asked some Christian 
brother or sister: "Won't you pray for my unprofitable life, my 
barren life, my life so fruitless, with nothing to show but leaves." 
O friends, is it not our highest privilege and joy, as well as duty, to 
bring souls to Jesus? Let us go to work! Let us bring converts 
to the Savior! Let us bring all men to Christ! 

Will you look at the 8th verse of the same chapter: "This iw a 
faithful saying, and these things I will affirm constantly, that they 
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good 
works." Now, you know the charge is sometimes made that evan- 
gelical Christians preach salvation by faith alone; that we are justi- 
fied by faith, and as soon as we believe we are saved. Now, that is 
not the entire New Testament teaching. To be sure, we are saved 
by faith; but it is only by a faith that manifests itself in good works. 
If we believe otherwise, we are staking our faith on some creed, 



550 WOEK. 

some church, some particular minister, and not on Christ, who said, 
even at twelve years of age, " Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business." The life of Jes\is was one succession of good 
works; and if we would follow his example, we cannot help working. 

" Be careful to maintain good works." I suppose that means you 
are to carefully maintain the church. Let me say to all, maintain 
the church. Let me say this especially to all young converts. 1 
have heard that of these some say they can be Christians and not 
unite with the church; and I was told, last night, that one of them 
said I didn't belong to the church. That is a mistake. I tried, as 
soon as I was converted, to enter the church; but at first they would 
not let me; some doubted whether I was converted. But I have 
been in the bosom of the church ever since, and have never seen the 
day or the hour that I would be out of it. I believe it is the dearest 
institution on earth; that there is no institution to be compared with 
it. It was the church that Christ died for, because he loved it so 
dearly. 

If a man is born of God, he should take "shelter in the church, 
that it may be to him a nursing mother. To do so, ought to be held 
not only the duty, which it is, but a glorious privilege. I have no 
sjanpathy with those people who stay out of the church and simply 
throw stones at it, and proclaim what it ought to be. If we can 
make it better, let us go in. Don't expect the Church of God upon 
earth to be without failings. If the church is cold, go in and warm 
it up. Let us each do what we can to make it better. And then 
the Sunday-school — let us make that better. Go out oh the streets 
and get those children, and teach them the words of life; that is the 
way to maintain good works. Bible societies should be maintained ; 
Bible reading should be maintained. Whatever the good work is, 
carefully maintain it. If you have wealth, send that money around; 
use the Lord's money for the Lord. I hope to see the day when 
men will seek investments for the Lord, as they now seek them out 
for themselves. If a man has a few thousand dollars to invest for 
himself, how he seeks out the best investment! On this very ground 
why should not Christian men seek out investments for the Lord? 
I don't believe any other investments will bring in better dividends. 
Yes, I hope the time is coming more and more, when rich men will 
" carefully maintain good works. And to all I say, see that every- 
thing that is good is maintained; cheer these young converts; do 
not be complaining; be just as careful — every one of you, new con- 
verts and all — be just as careful to "maintain good works" as to 
accept Christ. 

Now, look at the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians, 2d chapter and 
17th verse: "Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good 
word and work." Now what we want is to get "stablished," to 
have a settled plan or method of doing good works. I have been 



WORK. . hoi 

a, superintendent of Sabbath-schools for some years, and noticed this: 
that teachers who swung around from place to place, who took in 
Dr. Kittredge's church, then the First Methodist and then this and 
then that, have always proved failures. Now, I like these men that 
take hold of classes and don't give them up, and who are in their 
regular pew every Sunday, and are not drawn away by some elo- 
quent preacher — some preacher from abroad, who happens to be 
filling a South-side or a North-side pulpit. Fifty-two Sundays in 
the year they are there; you know where to find them, they're right 
there at the accustomed post of duty. All the while, their influence 
increases. But these teachers, and others that are all the time run- 
ning here and there, never accomplish much. 

A good many people are like a bundle of shavings; a spark falls, 
and quickly the shavings are all gone, and there's left scarcely any 
ashes even. My friends, ten thousand such Christians are not worth 
one that makes constancy his motto. We don't want any revival 
Christians — got enough of them; don't want any Sunday Christians 
— got enough of them. "What's wanted are these men "stablished" 
in good works, these men that hold on. A man that does one thing- 
is a terrible man. The man who tries a hundred things fails at every- 
thing. If it is the Sunday-school, if God calls me there, I will stand 
by my post. If God calls me to lead a cottage prayer-meeting or 
read the Bible, I must win success there — I must hold on; and it 
won't be long before God will bring me success, for God has prom- 
ised it: "You shall reap, if you faint not." God will try you; you 
will have some things to discourage you; but you must hold on. 

Next, please look at the 17th verse of the 3d chapter of Colos- 
sians: " Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name 
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the father by him." 
Don't work, as your highest motive, to advance the Centenary 
Methodist church; don't work for the Third Presbyterian church, 
nor for the First Congregational church. If a man goes to work to 
exclusively build up the Congregational, the Presbyterian, the Bap- 
tist, or the Episcopal church; to build up exclusively any of the 
denominations, he is on the wrong path. It is not in the name of the 
church, but in the name of the Lord Jesus, that we are to do all 
things. If we do and suffer for him, God will bless us. When we 
come to God and ask a blessing for Christ's sake, don't you see what 
a power we've secured? For Christ's sake! Jesus as our advocate! 
In Detroit, at an international convention of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, Judge Olds was present as a delegate from Colum- 
bus. One evening, he was telling about the mighty power that 
Christians summon to their aid in this petition "for Christ's sake!" 
"In Jesus' name!" and he told a story that made a great impression 
on me. When the war came on, he said, his only son left for the 
army; and he became suddenly interested in soldiers. Every soldier 



552 WORK. 

that passed by brought his son to remembrance; he could see his 
son in him. He went to work for soldiers. When a sick soldier 
came there to Columbus one day, so weak he couldn't walk, 
the Judge took him in a carriage and got him into the Sol- 
diers' Home. Soon he became president of. the Soldiers' Home in 
Columbus, and used to go down every day and spent hours in 
looking after those soldiers, and seeing that they had every comfort. 
He spent on them a great deal of time, and a great deal of money. 
One day he said to his wife: "I'm giving too much time to these 
soldiers; I've got to stop it. There's an important case coming on 
in court, and I've got to attend to my own business." He said he 
went down to the office that morning, resolved in future to let the 
soldiers alone. He went to his desk, and then to writing. Pretty 
soon the door opened, and he saw a soldier hobble slowly in. He 
started at the sight of him. The man was fumbling at something in 
his breast, and pretty soon he got out an old soiled paper. The 
father saw it was his own son's writing. 

" Dear Father, — This young man belongs to my company. He has lost 
his leg and his health in defense of his country, and he is going home to his 
mother to die. If he calls on you, treat him kindly, 

" For Charlie's Sake." 

" For Charlie's sake." The moment he saw that, a pang went to 
his heart. He got up for a carriage, lifted the maimed soldier in, 
drove home, put him into Charlie's room, sent for the family physi- 
cian, kept him in the family and treated him like his own son. When 
the young soldier got well enough to go to the train to go home to 
his mother, he took him to the railway station, put him in the nicest, 
most comfortable place in the carriage, and sent him on his way home 
to his mother. "I did it," said the old judge, "for Charley's sake." 
Now, whatsoever you do, my friends, do it for the Lord Jesus' sake. 
Do and ask everything in his name, in the name of him " who loved 
us and gave himself for us." 

And then again, lastly, be united. It is the greatest force of all 
to be of " one mind and one spirit." The boast of infidels has been, 
" Christianity has been all divided up." " Be," I beseech you, " of 
one mind and one spirit." If jealousy comes in among you, you 
cannot do great things. If one minister is used more than others, 
let us praise God for that; let us thank him that he has given divers 
gifts to men, all contributing to the glory of his name. This work, 
then, won't stop, but will go on. How many battles in the last war 
were lost just through jealousy in the officers? When I was in the 
South, they told me that they lost many and many a battle because 
jealousy got in among the generals. Just so, many battles are lost 
to God's people. All must be willing to do anything, that God's 
work may go on. When Grant's army lay in front of Richmond, 
after the battle of the Wilderness, when he was first repulsed, he 



DEATH OF ME. P. P. BLISS. 553 

called his four leading commanders, one dark night, to consult with 
him. All advised him to retreat. The next morning early, an or- 
derly came dashing to the four commanders, bringing word to 
advance in solid column without delay. That attack defeated the 
Southern column; and what did it was the steady, irresistible advance 
in solid column. So let the advance be made in the army of Jesus. 
Be not hearers of the Word any longer, but doers. Let every one 
do what he can to carry on this work; gird on your armor for the 
fight. I am told that during Napoleon's great wars, medals were 
struck off with a scene of battle on one side, and on the other, the 
simple words, "I was there;" and after Napoleon had died, and years 
had gone by, those old veterans would bring out their medals, and, 
talking about the battle, or the prowess of the great general, they 
would proudly tell how they were in the thickest of the fight — " I 
was there." Oh, my friends, rush forward to the thickest of the 
fight; and by-and-by it will be your boast, " I was there, T had a 
hand in that fight." And by-and-by — still keeping up the warfare, 
even in your gray hairs and tottering age — shall some one say of 
you: " He was a true soldier of the cross, and fell from the walls of 
Zion with the trump of God in his hand, and a shout of victory on 
his lips." May that be the end of every child of God here, in this 
Tabernacle, in this city. May we die — not in the wilderness — may 
we die with the trump of God in our hands, and with shouts of vic- 
tory on our lips! 



ON THE DEATH OF MR. P. P. BLISS. 

"Therefore be ye also ready." 

I expected to enjoy, this afternoon, coming around here and hear- 
ing our friend Mr. Bliss sing the Gospel and our friend Mr. Whittle 
preach. I was telling my wife, when I got home Friday night, that 
I was really glad I didn't have to work so hard on this Sabbath. I 
cannot tell you what a disappointment it has been to me. I have 
looked forward to those two men of God coming to this city. I had 
arranged and made my plans to stay over a few days, in order to hear 
and enjoy their services. Ever since I heard that I would have to 
take their place this afternoon, there has been just one text running 
in my mind. I cannot keep it out: "Therefore be ye also ready." 
You who have heard me preach the past three months, I think I will 



•554 DEATH OF MR. P. P. BLISS. 

bear witness to this, that I haven't said much about death. Perhaps 
I haven't been faithful in this regard. I'd always rather tell about 
life; perhaps there's not been warning enough in my preaching. But 
I feel that, if I should hold my peace this afternoon, and not lift up 
my voice and warn you to make ready for death, God might lay me 
aside and put some one else in my place; I must speak and forewarn 
you. 

To-day has been one of the most solemn days in my life. The 
closing hours of every year, for the past ten or twelve years, have 
been very solemn to me. I think I never spent such a day as I have 
to-day. This world never seemed so empty, and men never looked 
so blind away from God, as they do to-day. It seems, as never be- 
fore, that I cannot understand how life can go on in madness, how a 
man can keep away from Christ, when in just a stroke he is gone to 
eternity, and there is no hope. Those men I mean that really believe, 
intellectually, that the Bible is true; that if they die without regen- 
eration, without being born again, they cannot see God's kingdom. 
How it is they can believe, and yet they can still stay away from 
Christ when such judgments are brought near to them, is a mystery 
to me. I hope the words of the Lord Jesus will find their way to 
your hearts, as they have to mine; I hope you will hear him this 
afternoon saying: "Therefore, be ye also ready." He had been 
warning them; for in the verse preceding this text he said, "As in 
the days of Noah, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giv- 
ing in marriage, until the flood came and took them all away." It 
came suddenly. How often the judgments of God come suddenly 
upon us. I want to call your attention to a few words we find in the 
Old Testament, in the 6th chapter of Jeremiah, at the 10th verse: 
"To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Be- 
hold their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken; behold the 
word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in 
it." Also in the 33d chapter of Ezekiel, 4th, 5th and 6th verses: 
"Then whosoever hear the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warn- 
ing, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon 
his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not 
warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning- 
shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman s*e the sword come, and 
blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword 
come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in 
his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hands." 
Do you ask me, now, why I am so anxious to warn you? Because, 
if I don't, the blood of your soul will be required at my hand. 

I want to warn you to-day; I want to plead with you to-day. 
And it is because I love you that I come to plead with you. I am 
sure there is nothing else that could induce me to speak this after- 
noon. I felt rather like going into my room and locking the door, 



DEATH OF MR. P. P. BLISS. 00d 

and trying to learn what this providence means. I don't expect to 
find -out yet; I'm not sure I'll ever know. But — (the speaker paused 
in deep emotion), I just felt I'd got to come down here this afternoon 
and cry out: "Therefore be ye also ready!" Make ready before the 
close of this sermon! Just ask yourselves this question, " Am I ready 
to meet God this moment?" If not, when will you be? God would 
not tell us to be ready, if he did not give us the power, unless it was 
something within our reach. 

The thought is put into some of your minds that I am trying to 
take advantage of the death of this good man to frighten you and 
scare you; and I haven't any doubt Satan is doing this work, at this 
moment. Right here let me notice that some say I'm preaching for 
effect. That's what I am doing. I want to affect you; I want to 
rouse you out of your death-sleep, when I warn you to prepare to 
meet your God; for "in such hour as you think not the Son of man 
cometh." It is just from pure love, pure friendship to you, that I 
warn you; the thought that I am trying to frighten you from selfish 
motives is from the pit of hell. You take a true mother; if she does 
not warn her child when playiug with fire, you say she's not what 
she professes to be, not a true mother. If a father sees his boy go- 
ing to ruin and don't warn him, is he a true father? I say, it is the 
single power of love that makes me warn you. Suppose I walk by 
a house on fire, with a man and woman in it, and their seven chil- 
dren. If I don't call out, hammer on the door, smash in the win- 
dows if necessary, and cry out, " Escape if you can," what would you 
say? You would say, I ought not to live. If souls are going down 
to death and hell all around me — I verily believe such live to-day, 
and some are in this building — how can I hold my peace, and not 
cry out at the top of my voice: " Therefore be ye also ready, for in 
such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." 

There is a legend, that I read some time ago, of a man who made 
a covenant with Death; and the covenant was this: that death should 
not come on him unawares, — that death was to give warning of his 
approach. Well, years rolled on, and at last Death stood before his 
victim. The old man blanched and faltered out: " Why, Death, you 
have not been true to your promise; you have not kept your cove- 
nant. You promised not to come unannounced. You never gave 
me any warning." "How, how!" came the answer, "every one of 
those gray hairs is a warning; every one of your teeth is a warning; 
your eyes growing dim are a warning; your natural power and vigor 
abated — that is a warning. Aha! I've warned you — I've warned 
you continually." And Death would not delay, but swept his vic- 
tim into eternity. 

That is a legend; but how many the past year have heard these 
warning voices. Death has come very near to many of us. What 
warnings have come to us all. The preacher's calls to repentance, how 



556 DEATH OF MR. P. P. BLISS. 

again and again they have rung in our ears. We may have but one 
or two more calls yet, this year, in the next few hours; but I doubt 
it. Then how many of us in the last twelve months have gone to 
the bedside of some loved friend, and kneeling in silent anguish un- 
able to help, have whispered a promise to meet that dying one in 
heaven. Oh, why delay any longer! Before these few lingering 
hours have gone, and the year rolls away into eternity, 1 beg of you, 
see to it that you prepare to make that promise good. Some of you 
have kissed the marble brow of a dead parent this year, and the 
farewell look of those eyes has been, " Make ready to meet thy God." 
In a few years you will follow, and there may be a reunion in heaven. 
Are you ready, dear friends? 

When visiting the body of my brother, just before he was put in 
the grave, I picked up his Bible, of the size of this in my hand; and 
there was just one passage of Scripture marked. I looked it up, and 
I found it read: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might." As I read it that night, the hand that wrote it was silent in 
death. It was written in '76. Little did he think, when he wrote 
it, that in that same year he would be silent in the grave. Little did 
he think that the autumn wind and the summer snow would go roar- 
ing over his grave. Thank God, it was a year of jubilee to him! 
That year he found salvation ; it was a precious year to his soul. 
That year he met his God. How often have I thanked God for that 
brother's triumphant death! It seems as though I could not live to 
think he had gone down to the grave unprepared to meet his God, — 
gone without God and hope. Dear friends, — dear unsaved friends, 
— I appeal to you that you will now accept Christ. Seize the clos- 
ing hours of this year; let not this year die till the great question is 
decided. I plead with you once more to come to the Lord Jesus. 
Oh, hear these blessed words of Christ, as I shout them again in your 
hearing: " Therefore be ye also ready." 

Now death may take us by surprise. That's the way it has taken 
our dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bliss. Little did they know, as they 
rode toward Cleveland last Friday night, what was to be the real 
end of the journey. About the time I was giving out notice, last 
Friday night, of their being here this afternoon, they were then 
struggling with death. That was about the time they passed into 
glory-land. It was a frightful death, by surprise. But, beautiful 
salvation! star of hope! in that time of gloom, darkness and death: 
they both were ready. They were just ripened for the kingdom of 
God. I do not think I ever saw two persons who have grown more 
in Christ than these dear friends have in the past four or five years. 
I do not think a man walks the streets of Chicago to-day who has 
so few enemies as P. P. Bliss. He was a man we will love in another 
world. When the summons came, it must have been terrible; it 
must have brought cruel pain for a few minutes. But it lasted only 



DEATH OF MR. P. P. BLISS. 557 

a few minutes, and — they were in glory. Only a few minutes — and 
they were all together in that world of light, perhaps raising the 
shout of praise, " Alleluiah, what a Savior!" I think the heavenly 
, choir has had a great accession to-day. I doubt whether many around 
the throne of God sing sweeter than P. P. Bliss. I doubt whether 
many have loved the Son of God more that he. With that golden 
harp of the glorified, how sweetly shall he sing! 

But, my friends, while we are mourning here, are we ready? We 
cannot call them back. We may mourn for them; we may mourn 
for the sad misfortune that has befallen ourselves. But what is our 
loss is their gain. It is better for them there than here; it is better 
to be " absent from the body, and present with the Lord." Shall 
you join him in that blessed land? Say, are you ready? 

Now there are three things which every man should be ready for 
in this world: ready for life, ready for death, and ready for judg- 
ment. Judgment after death is as sure as life; judgment is as sure 
as death. There are three sure things. " It is appointed unto man 
once to die, and after that the judgment." It is of very little account 
how we die, or where we die, if we are only prepared, if we are only 
ready. We don't know what may happen any day. It seems to me, 
we ought to be ready any hour, any moment; we know not what 
may happen any moment. Oh, let us get ready! It seems the 
sheerest folly to delay this matter a single moment. Look at that 
train, where great numbers were ushered into eternity unexpectedly. 
Little did they think that their time was so near at hand. Little did 
our friends, Mr. Bliss and wife, think that they were going to be 
ushered into eternity, as they stepped light-hearted on that railway 
train. It would seem that people ought to resolve never to step 
aboard a railway train again, until they're ready to meet their God. 
It would seem as though no one would lie down and go to sleep to- 
night, until he knows he is ready to meet the bridegroom. 

Dear friends, are you ready? This question this afternoon, it seems 
to me, ought to go down into all our hearts. And then, if we are 
ready, we can shout over death and the grave; that death is over- 
come, the sting of death is gone, and the grave opens terrorless. 
Suppose we do go on and live thirty or forty years; it is all only a 
little moment. Suppose we die in some lone mountain, like Moses 
on Pisgah; or like Jacob, in the midst of our family; or like Joshua, 
with the leaders of Israel around us; or suppose God lets us die sur- 
rounded with the comforts and luxuries of home; or suppose death 
comes on unexpectedly and suddenly, as it did on Stephen; it maybe 
we shall be called to die the death of the martyr, and be put to death 
unexpectedly; but if we are only ready, what care we just how our 
summons comes. If I am ready, I would as soon die like Stephen, 
or Moses on Pisgah. I would as soon die like our friend Mr. Bliss, 
as like Jacob with all his sons around him, if only I am ready for my 



558 DEATH OF MR. P. P. BLISS. 

glorious inheritance beyond the grave. That is the main question. 
It is not how we die. It is not where we die. At the worst, it may 
be but the sudden shock of a few minutes, and all will be over; and 
we enter upon eternal joy, joy for evermore. Millions and millions 
and millions of years in this world will not yield the joy of one min- 
ute of heaven. O my friends, shall you have a place in that heav- 
enly home? Oh! will you not each one ask this question just now, 
" Am I ready, am I ready?" 

I believe that every man in this Christian land has had some warn- 
ing; some John the Baptist to warn him as Herod had, some Paul 
as Agrippa and Felix had, some friend like Nathan, sent to warn 
him, as David had; some friend to warn him such as Ahab had in 
Elijah. And, my friends, I think this is a day of warning to you. 
Are you not coming to God to-day? Will you not hear the Savior's 
loving voice to-day, "Come unto me "? God will forgive your sins 
and blot them out, and give you a new heart. Oh, let not the sun go 
down to-night without being reconciled to God. 

Little did those people on that train, as it neared Cleveland Fri- 
day night, little did they think the sun was going down for them the 
last time, and that they should never see it rise again. It is going- 
down to-night, — as I am speaking, the last sun of the year; and 
some of you in this assemblage may never see it rise again. Dear 
friends, are you ready for the call, if it comes to you between now 
and to-morrow morning? This very night you may be called away; 
your soul may be required by God your Maker. Are you ready to 
meet the King and Judge of all the earth? Let me put, urgently 
but kindly, these questions to every soul here to-night. Can you 
say: " 1 have Christ; I have eternal life through Jesus Christ my 
Savior"? If not, dear friends, let me ask you, what will you say 
when he shall come to judge you? If, this very night, he should sum- 
mon you to stand before him, what would you say? 

Oh, how deceitful death is! Something may fall onus as we walk 
home to-night, or we may fall down and break some part of our body, 
and be ushered into eternity. We may be seized by some fit, and 
we're gone. We may have some disease around the heart, that is 
hidden from us and that we know nothing about, and this may be 
our last day on earth. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow;" we don't 
know what will happen, even before to-morrow. And then, another 
deception. A great many people, you know, because their parents 
have outlived the allotted years, because their parents were long- 
lived people, think that they're going to live long also. How many 
are deceived in that way. Then there is that lying deception: "Oh 
it is time enough to be a Christian, — time enough to cry to God — 
when he calls us." Look at that wreck! Look at those people be- 
ing dashed down that frightful chasm to frightful deaths! That is 
no time to get ready; that is not the time! They have all they can 



DEATH OF ME. P. P. BLISS. 559* 

do trying to get out of the wreck, — bleeding, burning, drowning, 
frozen! How many in eternity in five minutes! How many in- 
stantly! No time for prayer in such chaos as that. I would not say 
God is not merciful; he may have heard even then, the penitent cry; 
but I would not dare to say, " Put it off till some calamity overtakes 
you." The word comes, now, at this moment, " Prepare to meet 
God," " Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." Oh> 
that is the first duty and pleasure of life, not its last! It is more 
important that you seek the kingdom of God to-day — just now, this 
very hour — than anything else, than everything else, in life ! It is 
more important than going home to look after the highest earthly 
affairs; more important than if you could win the wealth and hon- 
ors of the universe! Let business be suspended and everything be 
laid aside, until this greatest question of life — this greatest question 
of time and eternity — is settled, " Prepare to meet thy God." Oh^ 
prepare! 

My friends, I call upon you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. I 
call upon you to prepare this day and this hour to meet your God. I 
lift up my voice, in warning, to all of this assembly. Would you not 
rather be in the place of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss, and die as they did, in 
that terrible wreck, by that appalling accident — would you not rath- 
er choose that, than to live on twenty-five years, or a hundred years, 
and die without God, and go down in despair to dark rivers of eter- 
nal death! Oh, it was appalling! But I would rather, a thousand 
times, have been on that train that dark night, and taken that awful 
leap and met my God as I believe Mr. and Mrs. Bliss have met him, 
than to have the wealth of worlds and die without God and hope ! 
Oh, if you are not ready, make ready just now! I think a great 
many tears should be shed for the sins of the past year. If you take 
my advice, you will not go out of this Tabernacle this night until 
you have tasted repentance, and the joy of sins forgiven. Go into 
the inquiry-room and ask some of the Christian people to tell you 
the way of life, to tell you what to do to be saved. Say, "I want to 
be ready to meet my God to-night; for I don't know the day or the 
hour he may summon me." 

I may be speaking to some this afternoon who are hearing me for 
the last time. In a few days, I will be gone. My friends, to you I 
want to lift up my warning voice once again. I want to speak as to 
brethren beloved, hastening on to judgment: " Prepare to meet thy 
God." I beg of you, I beseech of you, this moment, don't let the 
closing hours, these closing moments of '76, pass, until you are born 
of God, born of the Spirit, born from death. This day, if you seek 
God, you shall find him. This day, if you turn from sin and repent, 
God is ready to receive you. Let me say, he never will be more 
willing than to-day; and you'll never have more power than to-day. 
If you are ready, he is ready now to receive and bless you forever 1 



5(30 



GOD IS ABLE. 



Oh, may the God of our fathers have compassion upon every soul 
assembled here! May oar eyes be opened; and all flee from the 
wrath to come! May the divine warnings take hold on every soul! 
May we profit by this sad calamity, and may many be raised up in 
eternity to thank God that this meeting was ever held. 



•GOD IS ABLE." 

"Tea, he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him stand." Romans 14: 4. 

I want to call your attention to one little word to-night that should 
be, and will be, of great help to you. That little word is "Able;" 
and I will try and show you what God is able to do. First, you will 
find it in the 14th chapter of Romans, part of the 4th verse: "Yea, 
he shall be holden up; for God is able to make him stand." "For 
God is able," mark you, "to make him stand." When I first be- 
came a Christian, it was predicted by those who knew me that I 
would not hold out; that I would fall away in a few months. I used 
to fear and tremble myself; I was afraid I should fall. I knew noth- 
ing of the Bible; I was not acquainted with this precious Word. I 
do not think there were a dozen passages in the whole Word of God 
that I had committed to memory, and that I could quote. I did not 
know this blessed truth I have just read to you to-night, that God 
was able to make me stand. But I have since learned the truth of 
it; and I tell you to-night, if any of you young converts are full of 
fear, full of doubt, and at times have actually trembled in view of 
the temptations surrounding you, if you just lay hold of this precious 
word "Able," it will hold you up in all your pilgrimage, in all your 
journey, no matter how rough and hard. "God is able to make 
you stand." The God that can create a world like this, and can call 
it from nothing into existence — the God that can create life with a 
word — he certainly can make a poor sinner like you and me " stand" 
by his mighty power. He was able to make Moses stand, when ex- 
posed to the mighty temptations of Egypt. God enabled that other 
prophet to stand unterrified before the wicked Ahab. God enabled 
Daniel to stand in Babylon, when the whole city was against him. 
There he stood like a rock in the current of the river; the high, 
angry waves dash up against him, but there he stood; stood upright 



GOD IS ABLE. 561 

In that great city, with all against him. And Paul, I believe, wrote 
this blessed text out of his own experience; God held him up, and 
God made him stand. God sent him forth to the Gentiles; but along 
with him he sent his grace and gave him power from on high, telling 
him to be strong, to speak against the iniquity of men, and to testify 
-against it. 

And so, let me say, the God of Paul still lives; you have the same 
God Paul had. Oh, put your trust in God; look to him and pray 
to him; and he will give you strength; and he will make you stand 
right here in Chicago. Let no one fall; God has power enough; God 
has grace enough; God has strength enough, to keep every young 
convert in the straight path, if only you will look to him, if only you 
will pray to him daily for strength. 

Let me warn you to put not your strength in yourself. When you 
are strong — when you think you are strong — then you are very weak; 
that is the very time you are weakest. Paul says, "When I am 
weak, then am I strong." Our strength don't lie in ourselves; it 
lies in our redeemer. If my strength is in God, he will give me all 
power. If my strength is in myself, I will be constantly tumbling, 
constantly falling down. Therefore keep a fast hold on God, who 
alone is able to make you stand. I do not think a young convert will be 
able to stand by himself in a few years, or in many years. The stronger 
he gets, the stronger, too, grows the danger of his falling. The longer 
I live — the nearer I get to Christ — the more danger I see. The 
nearer a man gets to God, the more he constantly needs him. Man 
never becomes independent of God, but the longer he lives the less 
confidence he should have in himself. I find, in reading my Bible, 
that some of the most eminent men have fallen. They got self-con- 
fident; and when they became strong in themselves, they fell. Let 
no young convert become spiritually proud and lifted up; he can 
come to no victory in his own strength. Let him pray, and then the 
tempter will go from him. You find that men who have stood high- 
est in this \vorld have been men that have fallen, at different times, 
in their lives; and I think you will find they stumbled on this stone 
of trusting in their own strength. 

Peter — how confident he was. Though all the rest denied their 
Lord, he never would; but in a few hours he denied his Lord, and 
swore he never knew him. Oh, how self-confident he was! And so, 
always when a man is self-confident, satisfied with himself, and 
lifted up, he cannot hope to standalone; he is on dangerous ground; 
look out, he will slip and tumble headlong. We find men failing in 
their very strongest points. I don't know how it is, unless even in 
their citadel God wants to show them their weakness — that they 
cannot stand alone. Thus you remember the meek and humble 
Moses; and yet it was the very lack of his vaunted humility that 
kept him from the promised land. Again, take Elisha, the valliant 
36 



562 GOD IS ABLE. 

man. In the Old Testament, you find hardly anyone more exalted, 
unless it was Joshua, Daniel, and Joseph. But you find this very 
man Elisha getting afraid, and frightened almost out of his life, just 
at a simple message. He was cast down by alarm, and could not 
stand before Ahab ; in the midst of his strength, he was weak. So 
men fail in the strongest points of their character; for if men get to 
thinking they are able to stand alone, their strength becomes sud- 
den weakness. If we put our confidence in character, in habit, in 
anything but the might of God, our fall is not far off. Now, what 
the text says is this: God is able to make us stand. You can't 
stand alone, young convert; but God can and will give you the power, 
and will keep your feet from falling. 

I want to call your attention to the 2d chapter of Hebrews, the 
18th verse: "For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, 
he is able to succor them that are tempted." Oh, blessed thought, 
that God has himself stood these temptations, and so can realize our 
needs. I believe these very trials and temptations are sent to us to 
give us character. Men who never have temptations, never have 
trials, are not good for much as Christians. I count these things as 
most of a Christian's discipline; and the more of these thorns in his 
side he gets, the better and stronger a Christian he becomes. We 
don't want any hothouse Christians, shut up from the world and 
never tempted, never tried; but battling bravely with these powers 
which Christ came down from heaven to fight in his person and to 
overcome. God himself was touched with a feeling of our infirmities, 
coming down to this world and being one of us. He took upon him 
your nature and mine; therefore he can appreciate our frailties and 
is able — yes, abundantly able — to succor them that are tempted. 
What we want is not to pray God to deliver us from temptations; 
that is not it; but we want to pray that we may overcome them. 
Thus, whenever the great tempter of souls comes down upon us, 
God will give us the power and the grace to overcome him, and to 
grow the stonger for the victory. Of himself, a man has not power; 
but God will give him triumph over all temptations, if he is only 
asked to do it. Now let me say, right here, that if you are tempted, 
my friends, don't think that that is a sin. It is not a sin to be 
tempted; it is only sin when you yield to temptation; it is only sin 
when you listen to the tempter. He may come — we can't help that; 
but we want to resist him, and pray God to give us grace to over- 
come him and trample him under our feet. And every temptation 
we overcome gives us more strength to overcome the next one. So, 
little by little, we go on toward the fullness of the Christian char- 
acter. 

A great many temptations will assail you in Chicago, my dear 
young converts; a great many dangers await you. Should you be 
overcome, many who should help you may perhaps make sport of 



GOD IS ABLE. 563 

you, and possibly point the finger of ridicule at you, instead of sym- 
pathizing with you as they ought. I pray you not to get discour- 
aged. Instead of getting down-hearted, go to God in prayer; go to 
Jesus, for he is able to succor you in the hour of temptation. He 
himself has gone through it all. No one was more laughed at, no 
one was more ridiculed, more scoffed at, more jeered at, than the Son 
of God was; and he can sympathize with you in all your hours of 
trial. Just ask of him help, and he will succor you speedily, and 
give you a glorious victory. 

The next text I want to call your attention to is in 2nd Timothy: 
"For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is 
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that 
day." Now bear in mind that you cannot keep your own soul; but 
He will keep it for us, if we believe the language of this text, and 
are persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed 
unto him against that day. Some men may come to you and ask you 
what denomination you belong to — what persuasion you are of. Tell 
them you are of Paul's persuasion. Say, " I am persuaded that he is- 
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that 
day." I would advise you to belong to Paul's persuasion. I would 
rather be of Paul's persuasion than be in the Methodist, Presbyte- 
rian, or Baptist churches, and not have the truth of Paul's words 
sunk down in my heart. Denominations cannot keep you. A man 
may be a Presbyterian, an Episcopalian, a Methodist, or Congrega- 
tionalist, and still not be a Christian at heart. Remember, we can't 
keep ourselves, neither can churches keep us. The Son of God only 
can keep us. He is able to do it. The Son of God, who stooped 
from the throne of heaven and came into this world, is able to keep 
that which is committed unto him. Now, if a man lives in England, 
he wants to have his money in the bank of England. He thinks 
that bank is the safest in the land. I know a great many people in 
this country who send money there; they keep a regular bank ac- 
count there. They think that that bank is safe, should anything 
happen. If anything should occur with this government, they are 
sure their deposits are all right there. The Son of God is better able 
to keep your souls than the bank of England is able to keep one 
pound of your money. And if we commit ourselves to him and 
trust him to keep us, he will keep us. Now, if you go to the Tower 
of London, you will see the crown of England. Men watch it, day 
and night. There is not one minute in the hour, nor hour in the 
twenty-four, but a soldier of the English army has his eye on that 
crown. Suppose it should be taken to Buckingham Palace, and it 
was then only under the protection of the Queen. How long would 
Queen Victoria hold it? Why, some thief would have it in twenty- 
lour hours. That weak woman would not be able to hold it herself. 
But she could keep it a great deal better than we can keep our soul*. 



564 GOD IS ABLE. 

We have three enemies to contend against: the world, the flesh and 
the devil, who are always striving to obtain the mastery over our 
souls. What can we do? There is one thing we can do. We can 
call upon our Elder Brother and he will keep us from all harm. And 
if you, young converts, just trust him to keep your souls he will 
keep them. 

Then the next text is in the 2nd of Corinthians. 9:8: "And God 
is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having 
all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work." Now 
that brings us into the vineyard. The first tells us he " is able to 
make us stand;" then he "is able to succor us in the day of tempta- 
tion;" the next tells us he is able to keep us; and now he tells us we 
are able to go out and work in his vineyard. Why? Because "God 
is able to make all grace abound toward you." There is nothing 
that God calls us to do but that he will give us grace to do it. All 
we have got to do is to come to the throne of God and get all the 
grace we need. 

I hope you young converts have gone into the church to work. I 
hope that's what you propose to do; I hope you haven't gone into 
the church to rest and go to sleep. What you want is to find some 
work in your churches. Let every young convert cry, " O God, give 
me a soul." Try to win others to Christ. Suppose you commence 
to-night, and go right to work. I believe there is not a young con- 
vert in this building that cannot win at least one soul to Christ within 
thirty days, if they will. If they do this every thirty days, that 
■will be twelve souls in twelve months. Suppose every young 
convert here led twelve souls to Christ in the next year, what 
would be the state of affairs in Chicago at the end of a year? 
Why, what a host of new-born souls! What a shout of hallelujahs 
would be going up to the throne of God. It seems to me an easy 
thing to do. He has got plenty of grace for you. Lift up your 
voices for the Son of God. Go into the lanes and alleys of the city, 
into the garrets and down in the slums, into the places where sin 
abounds. Find a poor, lost one, and tell him of Christ and heaven. 
I pity, from the depths of my heart, that Christian who can't help 
his brother to obtain salvation. He tells us to enter his vineyard 
and work for him. I remember I had a picture that I thought a good 
deal of. It was of a woman coming up out of water with both arms 
around the cross; I thought it was beautiful. But one day, I was 
going along the street and I saw in a window another picture. It 
was of a woman coming up from the waters of death. She had one 
arm around the cross, and with the other she was helping the strug- 
gling people around her, up to where she was. I didn't think much 
of the first picture then. I thought it was like a good many Chris- 
tians. They had both arms clasped tightly around the cross, and 
gave no assistance to those struggling around them. If the Son of 



GOD IS ABLE. 565 

v 

God pulls you out of the pit of darkness and puts a new song into 
your mouth, don't you hold your peace. He said to the man from 
whom he cast out the devils: "Go home, and tell your friends what 
great things the Lord has done for you." That man had a mighty 
power in that little town; and the young converts here have a power 
as great. I don't know any class that has more power for good in 
Chicago to-day than those young converts. One of those men who 
were dead in trespasses and sin by his testimony can do an immense 
amount of good. 1 see many young converts in this audience who, 
by their testimony, have led scores to Christ. I was some montns a 
Christian before I led any one to Christ. I didn't know anybody to 
tell me how to set about it. But after a while I got led out into the 
vineyard, and I thanked God I was led out. I say to you, my dear 
young converts, go out into the world and bear witness of what he 
has done for you ; and your reward in winning souls will be great. 

Go to a minister and to a church where you can find something to 
do. If you don't find it in the first one, go somewhere else; and if 
it isn't to be found in that church, with that minister, you just go to 
a third church. Keep going until you find a home where they will 
put you to work. Don't stand on ceremony, but pitch in. And don't 
despise doing humble work. Whatever is done for the Lord 
Jesus is honorable. One of the holiest and most successful mission- 
aries wanted to be sent out to preach. But some objected, thinking 
ill of his talents. Finally, at his persistent requests, they asked him 
if he would go out and teach school among the heathen instead of 
preaching to them. lie gladly went, and soon his marvelous talent 
for winning souls asserted itself, and every one did him honor. Yes, 
the temple of God is worth working for, in any capacity; if need be, 
do not despise being hewers of wood and drawers of water, and in 
due time promotion will come. The trouble is, too many are willing 
to do only great things. Go out to the streets and take up the dirty 
little ragged boys, the poor children of some poor mother who has 
gone down to her grave, perhaps, with a broken heart over a hus- 
band's drunkenness. Take the little urchins by the hand, and take 
them to the Sabbath-school. By and by, if you earn it, God will 
promote you; or that little boy you have saved may become a Mar- 
tin Luther, a Sommerfield, a Wesley, who can tell; and so, through 
your humble effort, the brightest jewels may shine in the Lord's 
crown as eternal ages roll on. Inconceivable results may reach out 
from your poor efforts. Millions yet unborn may be brought to the 
kingdom of God. My friends, labor! Let that be your watchword. 
We have no higher privilege than to thus toil for others; it saves 
them, and keeps ourselves true to our God. I do assure you, I have 
had a new joy since I began working for souls. And the more I 
work and preach, the more joy and satisfaction come to my soul. 
Wherefore let us all labor diligently, if we would have the full ben- 



566 GOD IS ABLE. 

efit of our religion; if we would keep alive and bright our own faith 
and devotion. 

The next thing I call your attention to is in the 4th chapter of 
Romans, and the 20th verse: u He staggered not at the promise of 
God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 
and being fully persuaded, that what he had promised, he was able 
also to perform." This is another " Able " I want to impress upon 
you; and this is, that God is able to do all he has promised. He 
promised, when he left this world, to send down the Comforter, and 
told the disciples to wait at Jerusalem for power from on high. And 
lo, when they had tarried there ten days, the Holy Ghost came as 
Christ had promised. And he promises still to send the Comforter, 
to all that pray for that best of gifts. Then think of Joshua, how, 
when he was going to die, he gathered the elders before him and re- 
viewed the forty years of his life in Egypt, the forty in the desert, 
and then the thirty in the land of promise: how he lifted up his 
voice, and testified to the full and complete fulfillment of the prom- 
ises of God: " Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth; 
and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one 
good thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your 
God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and ye 
know that not one thing hath failed thereof ." And just as in the days 
of Joshua, God bringeth to pass all his Word; not one of his prom- 
ises shall fail, but he is fulfilling them all to-day. Whenever you 
begin to doubt God's Word, think of all his prophets and their tes- 
timony, and then trust in him always. Now, let me say to these 
young converts, I hope you will rely implicitly on the precious 
promises of God's Word. Make them your stay and support, in all 
your warfare. 

Then the next time this blessed word comes is in the 3rd chapter 
of Ephesians, 20th verse: "Now unto him that is able to do exceed- 
ing abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the 
power that worketh in us." When we first came to Chicago we did 
not dare expect half the good things that God had in store for us; 
we did not dare to hope for the results which have come about, my 
friends. The Lord is able and willing, if we work diligently, to give 
us far beyond what we ask or hope for. 

Again, I would call your attention to another text. You will find 
it in the 24th verse of Jude: " Now unto him that is able to keep 
you from falling." Let me say, right here, that some young con- 
verts have an idea that there is such a thing as worldliness and 
backsliding in their heart, because they have heard of other men 
who have been converted drifting back. But it is a privilege of 
every child of God to know that you can be kept from falling, from 
this night, from this hour. Our Savior is able to help every one of 
you. I have taken a motto for the year, and I would like to have 



GOD IS ABLE. 567 

every one of you young converts take it also. It is in Isaiah 41: 13: 
" For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand." Now, if the 
God of heaven has got hold of my right hand, how am I going to 
fall? The thing is impossible. I have a divine power sustaining and 
leading me through this dark world. May this motto sink deep 
down into the heart of every young convert here: "For I the Lord 
thy God will hold thy right hand." And as you go along, don't you 
forget where you came from. It does us a great deal of good to look 
into the pit from whence we came. The text in Deuteronomy 
32: 10, will apply to you then: "He found him in a desert land, and 
in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed 
him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." 

There is an institution in London, in connection with which a gen- 
tlemen of wealth has done a great deal of good. He went down to 
to the Seven Dials, one of the worst places in London, and there he 
used to stay till 2 o'clock in the morning, picking up young street 
Arabs, and taking them into the house of shelter. That man has 
spent thousands of pounds in that quarter of London. When I was 
there, he had upward of 300 young men, whom he had brought from 
those slums, who were some in China, others in Australia, and some 
in this country. When he would take them from the horrible pit, 
he would go and get their photographs taken, in their rags and dirt. 
Then they were taken to a bath and given new clothes. They were 
put into an institution, taught a trade, and not only the rules of life, 
but every one of them was taught to read his Bible. After keeping 
them a few years and educating them, before they left, they were 
taken to a photograph gallery and had their picture taken, and both 
were given them. This was to show them the condition in which 
the institution found them, and that in which it left them. So, my 
friends, remember where God found you. Remember that he found 
someof you as a gambler, a drunkard, some ofyou standing on the very 
borders of hell, with all its horrors upon you; remember that some 
of you were in such a condition that you could see snakes all around 
you, and that he lifted you from the pit, and placed you on a rock of 
safety, and put a new song in your mouth. And let there go up 
from you a song of gratitude, thanking God that he has stooped down 
and lifted you out from the darkness of hell. Praise God and work 
for him. I think it is one of the greatest privileges of Christian life 
that we can go out and work for the Son of God. Let me call your 
attention to this portion of Scripture, probably the last that will ever 
be read my me in this hall. You will find it in the 20th chapter of 
Acts, and it is Paul's farewell: 

"And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of 
the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, 
Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what man- 
ner 1 have been with you at all seasons. Serving the Lord with all 



568 GOD IS ABLE. 

humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which be- 
fell me by the lying in wait of the Jews: and how I kept back noth- 
ing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have 
taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the 
Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith to- 
ward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the 
spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me 
there: save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that 
bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, 
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my 
course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord 
Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, 
I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom 
of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record 
this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not 
shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed 
therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy 
Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he 
had purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my 
departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the 
flock. 

"Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things 
to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember 
that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one 
night and day with tears." 

This is a point I want to call attention to. 

" I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is 
able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them 
which are sanctified." 

" I commend you" — and in this connection, I want to tell you how 
the God of all grace has kept me. For nearly twenty-one years he has 
watched over me. He has watched over me and stood by me in the 
hour of temptation and trial; he has brought light to me out of dark- 
ness; and he will do the same with you. In leaving you, young con- 
verts,! would like to leave with you two "W's — the one is Work and 
the other is the Word; or, rather, the first is the Word and the other is 
Work. Go out and work for him, and you will become strong 
Christians. There are two lives you want to lead. The one is 
your inner life, that the world knows nothing of, that the wife of 
your bosom knows nothing of. That life is between yourself and 
God; and if you don't lead this aright, the outer life will not be long 
right. Let me say to you, young converts, read your Bibles and you 
will be strong. If you don't, you will fall; and the men who are 
now scoffing at this movement will say: "I told you you would 
fall back again; the meetings have been only an emotional excite- 
ment; only a sensation." I pray that Almighty God may keep you.. 



GOD IS ABLE. 569 

Just have those two W's before you — the Word and Work; and 
make that your banner. I would pray the young converts not to 
bring disgrace to the family of God into which they have entered. 
Let them be faithful. You are no longer your own, but you have 
been bought by Christ. If you do anything wrong, go and take it 
to Christ. In him, we have an advocate with the Father. It does 
not follow that, because you have committed a sin, you are not a 
Christian. It is only when you sin and want to remain in sin that 
you cease to be a Christian. If you see one of those young converts 
overtaken by sin, go and try to lift him out of it. Don't try to help 
the devil to keep him down. Try to get that young convert on his 
feet. If you see one of those saved drunkards falling back again, 
go and try to wean him from his danger. Go and tell him Christ is 
full of mercy and love, and wants to take him back again. Peter 
asked him if he should forgive his brother seven times. I can 
imagine the expression on his face as he answered: "Seven times, 
Peter? Why, forgive him seven times seventy times." If the Lord 
forgives so freely, shan't we forgive every man? If any man among 
you is led astray, let his brother try to get him back again. 

I hate to say farewell. I cannot tell you howl have enjoyed my- 
self here during the past three months. When we came back from 
Europe, I wanted to come here first; but to be honest with you, I 
was rather afraid. I was afraid the ministers would not come to- 
gether, as they did in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other 
places we had visited; but since I have been here, I have never 
had such a band of ministers standing so close by me. The first 
Sunday morning I had a perfect host come to me and shake me by 
the hand; and when my brother was taken from me, they gave me 
the kindest sympathy. I want to thank God for the co-operation 
of the ministry; for, if we had not had such co-operation, our work 
would not have been near so great. While in Boston, there will be 
many a prayer going up for the ministers in Chicago. Let me thank 
you, dear ministers of God, for your sympathy and prayers. The 
next class I want to thank is the press. I cannot tell you how grate- 
ful I feel toward that body. I have to hear the first unkind word 
said against me by the daily press. May the blessings of heaven 
rest upon every member of the press of Chicago. The ushers, for 
their courtesy, the choir, for their regularity and service, the busi- 
ness men, for what they have done in giving such a building and 
donating so liberally toward this work, I also sincerely thank. 

Twenty-one years ago, I gave myself to work for souls and bring 
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you from experience, do 
not neglect private or public prayer; only so can you fit yourself for 
work to become effective Christians. This is my experience. By 
this power we have done what we have in this city; and by this 
power we look for a more wonderful work in Boston. I want you 



570 GOD IS ABLE. 

all, in your closets and homos, to lift up your hearts, at least once a 
day, in prayer for the work in Boston. Every night at 7 o'clock — 
for it will then be 8 o'clock in Boston, and our meeting will be 
commencing — call upon God wherever you are, just lift up your 
hearts to God in prayer. Just ask God that power may be given 
from heaven, so that there may be a greater work in Boston than 
has ever been known on this continent. I am looking for great 
things in Boston; I am expecting a richer manifestation of divine grace 
than has yet been shown. 

Let me say, in closing, go on to higher and higher things; con- 
tinue to get nearer and nearer to God. I remember a few years 
ago, a little child died, and just before his soul went home, he asked 
his father to lift him up; and the father put his hand under the head 
of his child and raised it up. But the child only said: "That is 
not enough; that is not what I want; lift me right up." The child 
was wasted all to skin and bones; but still his father complied, and 
lifted the dying child out of his bed. But the little fellow kept 
whispering, fainter and fainter, "Lift me higher, higher, higher!" 
And the father lifted higher and higher, till he lifted him as far as 
he could reach. Yet, still the barely audible whisper came, 
" Higher, father, higher," till at last his head fell back, and his 
spirit passed up to the eternal King — high at last. So, my dear 
friends, let your constant cry be higher, higher; more near the cross 
of the Son of God. Now, as an old gentleman attending a conven- 
tion in the Western country could not bring himself to say farewell 
to his beloved hearers — the word seemed to choke him — and could 
only manage to falter out, "I bid you good night," just so I cannot 
say goOd-bye, farewell, to you — and yet we must part. I must leave 
you; and in his words I merely say to you, "Good night." A dawn 
will come up yonder; and though never perhaps before that, I ex- 
pect to meet you in the resurrection hour. So I bid you "Good- 
night;" and, by the grace of God, we will meet in the morning. 



THE RIPENING HARVEST. 

"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? Behold, I say 
unto yon, lift up your eyes and look upon the fields ; for they are white already for the har- 
vest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal : that both 
be that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." John 4: 35, 36. 

I want to call your attention this morning to the 35th and 36th 
verses of the 4th chapter of John: "Say not ye, There are yet four 
months, and then cometh the harvest? Behold, I say unto you, lift 
up your eyes and look upon the fields; for they are white already for 
the harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth 
fruit unto life eternal : that both he that soweth and he that reapeth 
may rejoice together." 

He that reapeth may also rejoice with those that have been sow- 
ing for years in this city. You know that it takes a great many 
more people to plant and to sow than it does to reap; but when the 
reaping time comes, the difference is that the reaping must be done 
at once, and therefore it needs a great many more men for a few days 
at work to gather the harvest than it did to sow and plant. This 
planting and sowing has been going on here for years; and I am one 
of those that firmly believe that the day and the hour has come for 
us to reap a great harvest. A great many people have asked me, 
during the past week: "What the signs are in Boston; how is the 
work opening?" Now I want to say, right here, that we have never 
had it open any better. The last week is as good a week as we have 
ever had anywhere; I don't know but better. For the indications 
are now that the crowds have not come here to hear the singing, or 
listen to the preaching only, but to pray; and when the services are 
over, more people have tarried in the inquiry rooms to pray than, for 
an opening, we have had at any other place we have been to. And 
I want to tell you that is a sign. It is not when people come here 
to hear the singing or preaching, but when they come to pray, that 
we have a sure sign of a coming harvest. It is a good sign when 
they come with their consciences and hearts burdened, and com- 
mence to pray. I believe that the time has fully come, if the reap- 
ers will but gird on the armor of faith and go forth into these fields 
already white to harvest. And those that do reap will not be dis- 
appointed. 

I can tell you now, before the work begins, who are going to be 
disappointed. There are always three classes of people who come 
to these meetings. First, the critics come. They don't take any 
571 



572 THE RIPENING HARVEST. 

part in the services. Perhaps they may take a seat upon the plat- 
form, if they have obtained tickets, and sit there with arms folded, 
and remain in a dignified manner, looking about and criticising. And 
when there is work really to be done, and souls around them anx- 
iously seeking Christ, they won't help them, but turn away and go 
off and criticise. Anybody can do that. It don't take brains to do 
it. Most anybody can criticise. I never saw a meeting but what I 
could find something to criticise; find something that would make it 
better and better. I can criticise, so can anyone. It don't take 
much ability to do that. That class will be disappointed by these 
meetings, and disappointed from the beginning to the end. The 
meetings won't come up to their expectations. A second class come 
just to enjoy these meetings. They have the best seats there are 
every night and noon; but when it comes to performing real work 
and working to gather in some sheaves for the Master, they say: 
" Oh, you will have to excuse me; I am not qualified; I come to at- 
tend the meetings, of course; but I have very important business at 
home;" and away they go. That class will enjoy the meetings a 
little while, but be more or less disappointed. 

Then we come to the third class — that is the class we are after — 
the workers. We don't care for the critics and curiosity-seekers, or 
if they are disappointed. But the third class, the workers, they are 
the ones that will not be disappointed. They have gone out in the 
harvest-field to work. Those people are not going to be disappoint- 
ed. Now we want to get just as many workers as we can. The ob- 
ject of these morning meetings is to see how many are ready to go 
out and work in the harvest-field, and work personally for the Master. 
In other words, lay yourselves out for the work. We want men and 
women of Boston that will lay themselves out for the work. When 
we went to Chicago, a few months ago, there was a young man in a 
Sabbath -school there who had a class of rather wild young men. He 
was in the habit of taking them into the country, and spending two 
or three weeks of every summer of the time with them in boating, 
gunning and riding. Last summer he took them out, and always 
used to talk to them; but there was not one in the fifty or sixty of 
his class who was converted. When he went to Chicago, he said: 
" I am going to get a blessing upon my own soul, and see if God 
won't help me; and this may get a blessing upon my class." You 
see, he laid himself out. Now what was the result? Why, he only 
had about sixty or seventy in his class when we were there. And I 
got a letter from him last night informing me that he had over two 
hundred in his class now, and upward of sixty of those were convert- 
ed and working Christians. He had laid himself put for the work, 
and, therefore, God blessed him. Superintendents and Sabbath- 
school teachers of Boston, make up your minds that, God helping 
you, you will lay yourselves oit for the work. The reaping time has 



THE RIPENING HARVEST. 573 

come, and he that reapeth shall receive wages. Recollect one thing, 
that God will pay. Now a great many people want work. Why, 
there is work here for ten thousand. Enter into it, and God will fill 
your own soul with light, truth, peace and joy, and there will be joy 
continually. 

When in Manchester, a man came to me and said that he would 
like to do some work for souls. I said, "You haven't got to look a 
great ways. Look at these servant girls all around, anxious to find 
Christ, asking us to do something to help them, coming night after 
night. They can't get out to hear the preaching. You could form 
a Bible class and lead them to the Savior." He took that work up, 
and when we left Manchester he said the Lord was blessing and pay- 
ing him good wages. God always does. And when we sailed in 
July from Liverpool for this country, that man came down to the 
landing to see us off. And he said: " Mr. Moody, I have got seven- 
ty-seven servant girls in my class; and forty-five of them are con- 
verted, and have united with churches." He found his work. He 
was getting his wages. "And he that reapeth shall receive 
wages." 

Let me ask you, superintendents and Sabbath-school teachers, do 
you believe that a superintendent or teacher in the whole city can 
fail to bring down a blessing upon their charge, if they lay them- 
selves out for the work? Some of you may ask, " What do you 
mean?" I mean, let your parties and church festivals go. Set your 
face like a flint against frivolous things, and cry to God: "O God, 
give me souls, or I die." And God will not disappoint you. It may 
be that you do not get what you want now; but this religion and 
God's power is as strong as ever. If you will only lay yourselves 
out for the work of saving souls, God will not disappoint you, but 
give you success. In one city where we went, a Sunday-school su- 
perintendent came to one of these morning meetings; and he felt 
that he was not faithful enough, and was troubled. He went to his 
pastor, and said: "I want to resign my position as superintendent; 
I cannot be superintendent any longer; I want you to read my res- 
ignation in the pulpit." The minister asked: "What is the reason; 
what do you want to resign for?" " Well," says he, " I am afraid I 
am not converted; If I am, I am so cold no one would know it; I 
am not fit to gather sinners to life eternal, not fit to be superintend- 
ent." The minister said: " Don't you think that, instead of resign- 
ing, you ought to ask God to bless you?" And the minister knelt 
with him right there, prayed with him, and in the course of two or 
three days the man found relief, and peace and happiness in believ- 
ing; and instead of wanting to give up his school, he wanted to get 
his school blessed likewise. You see his heart hadn't been right, 
and that was the reason his work had not been successful in that 
Sunday-school. He confessed this to his Sunday-school, telling them 



574 THE RIPENING HARVEST. 

of how he had not been faithful, and how he had at last got right 
with God. And mark the result. Why, the teachers broke down, 
and confessed themselves in the same condition their superintendent 
had been in. And all the teachers in that school re-consecrated them- 
selves to God and his service. And the pastor of that church told 
me that he took one hundred and thirty into that school, after that 
superintendent and those teachers got themselves ready for their 
work as Christian workers. 

Now, I want to ask you here, to-day, Are you ready to go into 
the harvest field? Are you ready to go to your class this afternoon; 
and can you go with your heart burdened for their salvation? And 
can you tell those children that you care more for their salvation 
than for anything else? I believe these children can see by your 
eyes whether you care much for their salvation. If they can see 
you anxious, I believe we would see them come flocking to Christ. A 
great many people have asked me, " When are you going to reach 
the children?" First of all, the superintendents, teachers and pa- 
rents must prepare themselves; and then we can reach the children. 
Are you ready to-day, superintendents and Sunday-school teachers? 
That is the way to reach them. It is not by bringing them to this 
building, to preach to them, or to sing with them. Not that; but to 
get the parents and teachers warmed up. The trouble is, they are cold 
now. I believe hundreds of children are saying to-day, " Oh, that 
somebody would lead me to Christ!" A friend of mine went to a 
meeting in Michigan. There were Sabbath-school teachers there; 
and he was telling these teachers and parents the importance of tak- 
ing the children by the hand and leading them to Christ. As he was 
speaking, telling how few of them were willing to do this, a sweet 
little child, only about four years old, jumped out of her mother's lap, 
and reaching up her little hand, said, "Will you please lead me to 
Jesus?" She wanted to come at once; such love as his moved her 
little heart. And I believe, if we could get the language of hun- 
dreds of the hearts of these children, we would find written there 
the same words, " Will you please lead me to Jesus?" But with a 
cold church and mothers indifferent they will not be saved. O 
parents, wake up to the great fact that the souls of these children are 
worth more than kingdoms and worlds. 

I remember of a Sunday-school teacher, who did not really wake 
up to his responsibility to God for his class until he was ready to die. 
It was where I was a superintendent for a while. There was one 
class, this gentleman's, with which I had more trouble than all the 
rest. They were boisterous, unruly, and bound not to behave. One 
Sunday he was away, and they acted worse than ever. The next 
week he came into my place of business trembling, and said: " Well, 
Moody, the doctor tells me that I can't live; I have been bleeding 
again at the lungs, and I am going home to my widowed mother to 



THE RIPENING HARVEST. 575 

die." He trembled and wavered so much that I said: " What is the 
trouble? You are not afraid of death; you are ready to go?" He 
said: "No, sir, I am not afraid; but I am anxious for my Sabbath- 
school. None of them are converted. I have been with them for 
years, and tried hard to lead them to God. If I had been faithful, 
I cannot help thinking that they would have been converted." I 
said: " Suppose you go round and see them personally, and talk with 
them." He said: "I cannot. When I could have done so, I would 
not." I took that conscience-troubled man in a carriage, and we 
went from house to house, visiting each scholar. And as he got out 
of that carriage, he would reel in his weakness across the sidewalk 
to the doors and call them — Martha, Mary, Julia, or whatever the 
name might be — to him. And with the tears trickling down his 
cheeks, he would beg of them to come to Christ, to settle the ques- 
tion then and there, and would commend them to God in prayer. 
He labored for ten days, and at the end of that time the last one 
yielded to God. The great vital question of their lives was settled; 
they had acceped his Savior, his Lord, Jesus Christ. He came to me 
and said, "My work is done, and I am going home." I said: "You 
are not going to-day; wait till to-morrow and get the whole class to- 
gether." I invited them to tea. That was one of the most mem- 
orable nights that I have ever known. I look back to that night as 
the night I got the strongest impulse for trying to bring souls to 
Christ. Before that, I hadn't Wbrked much. I was satisfied with 
sowing, and didn't think of reaping. I believe a good many Chris- 
tians have that way. I had labored years without reaping much. 
Well, the class gathered that night, and after we had talked and sung 
a few moments, he prayed with them for more and deeper faith, that 
the Lord would keep the little flock together, and that they would 
all meet in glory. After a while, the class began to pray; they prayed 
that they might be kept faithful, and meet that teacher in heaven, and 
win others to Christ. We sung, "Blest be the Tie that Binds 
Our Hearts;" and then we separated. The next evening, as the sun 
was going down over the Western prairies, this teacher was to leave 
our city. I thought I must get just one more shake of his hand, 
look once more into that lovely eye, and bid him God-speed. So I 
went to the station; and when I got there, I found one after another 
of that class had met there, without any preconcerted action. The 
whole class was there. They felt as I did, that they must see him 
once more. They gathered around him and sang, " Here we meet 
to part again, but when we meet on Canaan's shore, there'll be no 
parting there." He stepped upon the platform, and as the cars 
rolled out of the depot we could see his pale hand pointing toward 
that heaven where he wished to meet them. He died; but his in- 
fluence lives in Chicago to-day, and it will live as long as there is a 



576 THE PEOrHET DANIEL. 

Chicago. Some of the best we have there were converted at that 
time. 

Oh, may God give us a passion for souls! " Say not ye there are 
yet four months and then cometh harvest; behold I say unto you, 
lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to 
harvest." May God lift up our eyes, and show us the harvest! 
May we lift up our eyes and see the fields white to harvest. Let us 
pray that God will give us some souls to-day. 



THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

" But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the 
king's meat nor with the wine which he draDk. Therefore he requested of the prince of the 
eunuchs that he might not defile himself. " Dan. 1 : 8. 

It is a very common question, nowadays, when we see a success- 
ful man, to ask what has been the secret of that man's success. 
Now when we hear of a successful man in the Bible, it is well for 
us to inquire the secret of this man's success. I think you will find 
the secret of a Christian man's success in the eighth verse of the first 
chapter of that prophet Daniel: "But Daniel purposed in his heart 
that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat 
nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the 
prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." 

That's a good place to purpose — in the heart. A great many per- 
sons purpose in the head, and never get into the heart. What we 
want to do is to purpose in the heart, and when we do that it turns 
the current of our whole life. Our life is right if our heart is right. 
This young man was taken down to Babylon in early life. I do not 
know just how young, but somewhere about twenty years old, I sup- 
pose. He was a poor Hebrew slave, and with others had been taken 
to the capital by Nebuchadnezzar, who had taken about ten thou- 
sand of the best men captive. After he had got them into Babylon, 
he told the eunuchs to pick out some of the best slaves — those that 
were skillful and good-looking, and had some natural ability — and 
ordered that they be educated in the wisdom of the Chaldeans, and 
in two years they were to stand before him and have some of the 
meat and wine that he himself partook of. But there was something 



THE PBOPHET DANIEL. 577 

in the law of their Lord which taught them that they were not to 
partake of those things, and they could not touch that wine or that 
meat without violating the law of their God. I am afraid if they 
had been like a good many Christians of the present time they would 
have said, " Well, of course, now down in Jerusalem it would have 
been different. If we were there we would do as the people of Je- 
rusalem, but now we are in Babylon we must do as the people do;" 
the same as people say, " When you are in Rome do as the Ro- 
mans do." People are all the time compromising with what is pop- 
ular and forgetting their God. Now, if any young man ever had 
any good excuse for obeying Nebuchadnezzar, these young men had. 
They could have said, We are in exile, in bondage, in slavery, and 
why can not we do these things? Not only that, but if they had re- 
fused to partake of the meat and the wine, the same as Nebuchad- 
nezzar drank, and it came to his ears, he would get angry and could 
take their heads off. But, thank God, these young men and Daniel 
had a purpose. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile 
himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which 
he drank. If you will allow me the expression, I say that that 
young man had some backbone. He could say No! at the right 
time. There are a good many men lost because they cannot say 
No! at the right time. I believe there are more young men who 
come to Boston who are lost because they cannot say No, than for 
any other reason. A young man invites another to the theatre, and 
perhaps he has promised his mother he would not go to such a place, 
but he has not the courage to say "No." Or perhaps the young man 
has a room-mate who is a scoffer and he does not dare to get down 
and pray before that room-mate, simply because he has not got the 
moral courage. I like moral courage. I think there are hundreds 
and thousands to-day who are lost for want of moral courage. They 
dare not take their stand for God. Thank God that these young 
men had a purpose and dared to proclaim it. Daniel said to the of- 
ficer who proffered him the wine: "I cannot drink that wine or eat 
that meat." I can see that officer looking in perfect amazement at 
the man and saying: "How is it that you can not eat it?" And Daniel 
saying, probably: "Well, there is something in the law of my God 
forbidding it." They did not know anything about any other God 
in Babylon and it must have been a surprise to hear this. 

These Chaldeans had no knowledge of any other God. These 
Hebrew captives might have said: "If we talk of some unseen God, 
some strange religious feeling that we have, some unknown religion, 
wc will become unpopular and the butt and ridicule of the men 
that know us. I think that we had better not say anything about 
our religion, and keep it covered up, and nobody will know any- 
thing about it." But, thank God, those men took their stand on 
God's side; and whenever a man takes his stand on God's side, God 
37 



578 THE PE0PHET DANIEL. 

will not forsake him. You honor him and he will honor you. And 
they said, "Take away that wine and that meat and give us pulse in 
place of it." It seems that God had already brought them into 
friendship with the officer, for he feelingly said, "I cannot do that, 
for when you come to stand before the king, you will look lean, and 
not as fat as others, and he will inquire into it and want to know the 
cause; and when I tell him that you have not drank wine or eaten meat, 
he will be angry and want to know why." Now some men have 
got the idea that it makes them look well to drink wine and have 
red noses; but these men said, "Give us pulse in place of wine and 
meat," and at the end of ten days no one looked so fair and well as 
these four men, for Daniel carried three other men with him. The 
man that is right with God and has got a religion, always has an 
influence with somebody else, and these three men had a purpose in 
their hearts to go with this man Daniel. I will say right here that I 
think nine-tenths of the people who overcome the first temptations 
are the ones that are successful. You take a man who comes to a 
great city, and if he overcomes the first temptation he has, he is 
more liable to overcome others. If nine-tenths of them would only 
overcome the first they had, they would overcome others; but if they 
give way to the first temptation, then comes a second and a third,, 
and so on, and the man goes down to ruin, just for want of moral 
courage to overcome his temptations. Look at the young men in 
this city who go down to untimely graves on account of their not 
overcoming their first temptation, and not having the moral courage 
to say no at the right time. Now the second year there is a great 
fear in Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar has got angry and ordered 
all the wise men to be put to death. I suppose that the first this 
young prince knew of it the officer came around to him and said that 
he must put him to death, that he was to execute him, and probably 
Daniel said, "What have I done?" and the officer said, "Have you 
not heard of the decree of Nebuchadnezzar? He has had a dream, and 
all the wise men can not interpret that dream, and therefore he has 
ordered that they should all be put to death. We must take you out and 
execute you." "Well," says the young man, "he is very hasty; let 
me see the king," and he is taken into the presence of the king, and 
he says to him, " Give me a little time and I will tell you your 
dream." There is faith for you. He knew that the secrets belong- 
to his God might be answered through prayer. The time is granted. 
It must have been good news to these wise men, and how they must 
have looked upon that one man in hopes that he could solve it- 
And Daniel and his comrades pray to the God of heaven, to their 
God, that the Almighty might reveal the interpretation of this dream, 
and if no answer came their faith would not be unshaken. 

And after they had prayed they went to sleep. Now I don't think 
many men of our time, who knew they were to be put to death in 



THE PE0PHET DANIEL. 579 

the morning, could sleep the night before. They would sit up all 
night to pray to their God. While he was sleeping, God revealed 
to Daniel the interpretation, and we find him praising God and mag- 
nifying him. God heard his prayers; and when he rose in the morn- 
ing he was taken to the king, and he said: "O king, I will tell you 
the interpretation of your dream." There must have been great joy 
throughout that kingdom. It must have been noised around that he 
had found the interpretation. And now the young prince stands be- 
fore that great monarch and goes on to tell him the interpretation: 
44 O king, while thou dost lie with thy head on thy pillow thou dost 
dream, and in thy dream thou seest a great image." I can imagine 
at these words the king's eyes flash, and how he cried out with joy. 
And Daniel said: " This image's head was of fine gold, his breast 
and arms of silver, and his belly and thighs of brass, his legs of iron,, 
his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone 
was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet 
that were of iron and clay and brake them to pieces. Then was the 
iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces 
together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; 
and the wind carried them away and no place was found for them T 
and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and 
filled the whole earth." "Yes!" cries Nebuchadnezzar, "that is my 
dream. I saw that image; now tell me the interpretation." " Well," 
says Daniel, "The golden head of the great image represents your 
own government." I suppose Babylon was the largest city in the 
world. It was sixty miles around. Some say the walls were from 
sixty-five to eighty-five feet high, and eighty-five feet wide, and that 
it was one of the most magnificent cities ever seen. That Chaldean 
government extended all over the world. We talk about the impor- 
tance of the present day, but I suppose Babylon was, in its glory, 
one of the most magnificent cities ever seen. It opened into 
streets one hundred and fifty feet wide and fifty miles long. It was 
built in a perfect square; the beautiful Euphrates ran right through 
it, and there was a hanging garden built to please Nebuchadnezzar's 
wife, who came from a mountainous country. And there was a moun- 
tain in it, also, just to please her. The wealth of the world had been 
brought into this city. The wealth of the world seemed to be cen- 
tered in this great city. This Chaldean government, Daniel told the 
king, was to be destroyed by another, and afterward by a third and 
fourth kingdom, when, at last, the God of heaven was to set up his 
kingdom. For some time Rome ruled the world, and then it was 
divided into ten kingdoms, and these ten kingdoms have existed 
ever since. And Daniel himself lived to see the first overthrow, 
when the Medes and Persians came in. And centuries after 
came Alexander, and then the Romans. These dreams, he says, are 
true. God is coming to set up his own kingdom. When Christ sets 



580 THE PHOPHET DANIEL. 

up his kingdom on earth and reigns, then there will be satisfaction. 
Daniel was put into office, made a great man, and had a great many 
gifts given him, and became very popular, and was made a ruler or 
governor of the provinces; and his three comrades, Shadrach, Me- 
shach, and Abednego, were also put into office, like Joseph down 
there in Egypt, and Daniel was even greater than a king. 

The next thing that Nubuchadnezzar did that tried the faith of 
these men, was to put up a golden image on the plain of Dura. I 
don't know but what this very image that he had been dreaming 
about induced him to put this one up. His purpose was to have an 
idol that the world might worship, and thus pass his name down to 
posterity. The image, I believe, was one hundred and ten feet in 
height, and some think it was really built of gold. It looked like 
gold anyway. It was nine feet wide. There were hundreds and 
thousands and tens of thousands that came to see it, and then there 
was a proclamation sent forth to the corners of the world, and all 
nations and languages and tribes were summoned to the dedication 
or unveiling of it, as we say now of monuments. They came up to 
worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar had put up on that plain. 
And the decree had gone forth that every one should come and bow 
down and worship that golden image. And, therefore, there came 
another time when the law of God came into conflict with the law of 
Nebuchadnezzar. Now at this time, perhaps, Daniel was in Egypt 
or in some other empire on important business. We know that he 
was not then at the dedication of this image to bow down to it; but 
then, his three friends were there, and his influence was there. The 
hour had come, and you can see the governors, the sheriffs, the 
princes, and the wise men of the whole realm gathered there to wor- 
ship this golden image. And when they hear the sign, the music, 
the cornet, or the flute, they are to bow down and worship that im- 
age. But these men do not. Of course they had enemies. You 
can not find a man who serves God in any age but he has enemies. 
The man that loves Christ will be persecuted. The man that stands 
up to honor God will have enemies, and these three men, Shadrach, 
Meshach, and Abednego, had enemies, but they had taken their stand 
already that they would not eat of the meat or drink of the wine of 
Nebuchadnezzar, and they were not going to bow down to this im- 
age, although the whole world was going to. I suppose that if you 
and I had been there we would have been so weak-kneed that we 
would have first dropped down and worshiped it; that we would 
not have had the moral courage to take our stand for God. But, 
thank God, these men had the moral courage. The hour had come, 
and all of them were on their knees, but they could not all have kept 
their heads down, because some must have had their heads up to 
have seen these men who did not bow down. They were jealous of 
them and wanted to get rid of them. They knew they were not go- 



THE PROPHET DANIEL. 581 

ing to worship that image. Of course these three men sat there. 
They had gone as far as they could and obeyed the king as far as 
the law of their God allowed. But they would not bow down; they 
could not do it. They had the law of Sinai in their minds. The 
Lord God had said that they should not bow down to any graven im- 
age or have any other God but him. Afterwards their enemies came 
to Nebuchadnezzar and told him how these men had not obeyed his 
decree, and Nebuchadnezzar probably said, "Who are they?" and 
they said, " Why, these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- 
nego." The king ordered them into his presence, and they are 
brought to him, and he says to them, " Is it true that you will not 
bow down to that image I have put up on the plain? I will give you 
one more opportunity, and when you hear the sound of the cornet, 
or the flute, if you bow down you will save your lives, and if not I 
will cast you into the furnace, and who is the God that is able to de- 
liver you from my hands?" I do not know who was the spokesman 
on the occasion; perhaps it was Shadrach, and he was as calm as a 
summer evening, and he said, "My God is able to deliver us." There 
is faith for you. " Our God is able." Thank God for such moral 
courage. If we had a few men in Boston like that, that dared to 
take their stand and have a purpose, it would be the best thing we 
could have. Let them stand by God, and let infidels say what they 
may. Let these men catering for popularity take their stand for 
God and say: We will not bow down to images. Well, that settles 
it! The king gets angry and says: " Let the furnace be heated 
seven times hotter than ever, and cast these men into it, clothes and 
all. We don't want anything left of them." The fire leaped up 
and about them; but yonder was sitting the Great Shepherd, and he 
sees three of his little lambs in trouble, and he came from his throne 
and looked after them, and they came forth unharmed. And the 
king said, "Ye sons of the Living God, come forth." And he or- 
dered them to be brought out at once, and they came without even 
the smell of fire upon them. All that the fire had done was to burn 
off their chains. The devil can not make a fire so hot that it will 
scorch one hair of our heads when the living God interposes his 
hand. He will take care of his own. And they came walking, not 
running. Perhaps they said, with the prophet Isaiah: " Though I 
am encompassed with fire or pass through the valley of the shadow 
of death, yet will I trust in the Lord." Let us bear in mind this 
thing, that there is never anything lost by standing to what is right. 
Let us not be ashamed of our God. If we take our stand on God's 
side, he will help us. Look at Joseph. They cast him into prison, 
but he had the Lord with him. He had rather be put into prison if 
he had God with him, than to be outside without God. I wish that I 
had time to go on with this subject, but I must come to King Neb- 
uchadnezzar s second dream. When he had his first dream, his wise 



582 THE PH0PHET DANIEL. 

men told him that if he could tell them that dream, they would give 
him its interpretation. Now this dream he remembered, and he told 
it to them, but they were not able to tell him the interpretation 
thereof. Therefore, Daniel was sent for, and the dream was told to 
him, but he was astounded at it. The Scripture says that Daniel 
for one hour was astonished. But the king, told him to tell him all 
about it, and then Daniel told it. The king had a dream that he saw 
a tree in the earth whose branches reached to heaven, whose leaves 
were fair, and the fruit thereof large, under which the beasts of the 
field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of heaven had their 
habitation. And their king saw a messenger coming down from 
heaven and he hewed down the tree and destroyed it; and the king 
wanted Daniel to tell him what it meant. And Daniel told him that 
that tree represented his government, his empire, his kingdom, that 
then extended over the known world, and that God was going to de- 
stroy it on account of his sin and iniquity, and then the prophet be- 
gan to preach righteousness right there to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, 
in which he told him how the king of Nineveh repented, and how 
God heard his prayer, and he returned from his captivity. He 
preached to this great king righteousness, and we are told that on 
account or his exhortations with him, this great calamity was averted 
for one year. But at the end of twelve months Nebuchadezzar, 
walking in the palace of his kingdom, said: " Is not this great Baby- 
lon which I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of 
my power and for the honor of my majesty?" And even while he 
said this, a voice fell from heaven, saying: "Oh, King Nebuchad- 
nezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee." 
It is supposed that his reason reeled, and that he tottered from his 
throne and left the palace and went into the field, and he lived there 
with the beasts, " and seven days passed over him." How many 
that is we do not know. 

It might have been seven years until his reason returned to him, 
and at the end of this time his reason returned to him again. And 
he blessed the Most High and praised and honored him. And he 
gathered around him his counselors and lords, and he sends o^t an- 
other proclamation. He had sent out a good many before, but it 
seems he had never got home to himself. He had said what other 
people should do, but had never subjected himself to any high au- 
thority. It was altogether different from any other he had sent out. 

He says in the fourth chapter of Daniel, 34th, 35th, and 36th 
verses: 

'And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine 
eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I 
blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth 
forever — Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his king- 
dom is from generation to generation. 



THE PROPHET DANIEL. 583 

"And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and 
he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the 
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, 
r What doest thou? 

"At the same time my reason returned unto me, and for the glory 
of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and 
my counselors and my lords sought unto me and I was established 
in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me." 

Now these are the last words we hear of that great king that are 
on record: 

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of 
heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those 
that walk in pride he is able to abase." 

Those are the last words we have recorded of him, but it gives us, 
it seems to me, an insight into what had taken place in his heart — 
that he had become a new man; that he was altogether different, and 
no doubt it was all through the efforts of the faithful Daniel, and no 
doubt in that heavenly world, Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel now walk 
together. It was because of this man Daniel being firm and stand- 
ing by his God — that was the secret of his success. For it is said 
that if we are wise, and win many to Christ, we shall shine like the 
firmament of heaven, and like the stars in the night. God gave him 
the privilege of leading that first monarch and ruler of the whole 
world at that time to him. We lose sight of Daniel now for about 
fifteen years; where he was or what he was doing we do not know. 
The next time we hear of him is at the feast of Belshazzar. Bel- 
shazzar is supposed to be a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. In the 
Bible he is called the son, but they used to call grandsons, sons. 
Now we read of his having a great feast, and thousands being called 
together from different parts of his empire to attend it. We have 
only one short chapter in the Book of Daniel which tells us his his- 
tory, but that gives the whole story. The wicked, you know, don't 
live out half their days, and Belshazzar died, and did not reign a 
great while. While he was feasting and rioting with the people, 
Cyrus' army was besieging the city. I suppose Belshazzar thought 
his army was strong enough. While they were besieging him he 
kept right on drinking and carousing in the banquet hall. But in 
the midst of the feast all at once the audience is hushed; there is no 
more blaspheming now, no more cursing, no more drinking, no more 
praising of gods of gold and of silver, of brass and of iron, of wood 
and of stone. It was all hnshed. What has caused it? I can see 
the king turn deathly pale, his knees smite together, as he looks 
yonder on the writing. Over against the king upon the wall of the 
palace there is a finger writing upon that wall. It is the same finger 
that wrote at Sinai. It is the writing of the God of Sinai. Ho 
sends for the wise men of Babylon to tell him the interpretation and 



584: THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

offers them a great reward, and he offers to make the man that can 
read it the third officer in his kingdom. They come and look and 
try to interpret that handwriting, but no uncircumcised eye can read 
God's writing. That is the reason so many infidels and scoffers to- 
day can not understand the Bible; they try to make it out, but faih 
At last the king tells the queen that there is no man in the kingdom 
that can read that writing unless it is Daniel, who interpreted the 
dreams of Belshazzar's grandfather. And Daniel was sent for, and 
I can imagine as his eyes glanced upon that writing that it appear- 
ed very familiar to him. He did not have any trouble to read it. 
" Mene, raene, tekel, upharsin." " Tell me the interpretation," the 
king cries, "and I will give you anything you want, and make you 
the third ruler in my kingdom/' But Daniel says: "Give your gifts 
to another; I will-interpret it. Mene means: 'Thy God hath depart- 
ed from thee.' Tekel — 4 Thou art weighed in the balance and found 
wanting.' " Sinner, suppose God put you in the balance of the 
sanctuary this morning and weighed you, and you found you had not 
God and Christ in your soul. " Upharsin — 4 Thy kingdom is divid- 
ed.' " It is given over to the Medes and Persians. And that night 
Belshazzar's blood flowed with the wine. That very night Cyrus" 
army was turning the river Euphrates off into another channel, and 
battering away at the walls of the city; and Darius, the king of the 
Medes and Persians, succeeded to Belshazzar's throne. And Darius 
put one hundred and twenty men over the different provinces of this 
empire. How he knew Daniel we do not know. Perhaps he had 
met him when he was Prime Minister for Nebucadnezzar, and per- 
haps he had met him on some official business. We know that Da- 
rius had great confidence in Daniel. And after he puts one hundred 
and twenty princes over the different provinces, he puts over them 
three presidents, of whom Daniel was the first. Daniel was to rule 
the men in the whole empire, and was really the ruler. There was 
no one greater in the empire except Darius. We find that another 
great trial came across Daniel's path. But he had been tried when 
he first came to Babylon, and God was not going to desert him now. 
These one hundred and twenty princes had become jealous of Dan- 
iel. You never found a successful man, in the history of the world, 
but he had some enemies! Why, George Washington had enemies! 
We have been commemorating his life and celebrating his birthday, 
but he had a great many enemies in his day. Many were jealous of 
him. There was no reason for it; the man stood all right. He was 
true to God; but he had enemies, and we find that these princes had 
become jealous of Daniel. He looked over their accounts, and I do 
not know but he saw that they did not cheat the government. I do 
not know but they might have had some Indian contracts and could 
not make so much money out of the government as they could desire. 
They could not defraud the government because of Daniel's watch- 



THE PROPHET DANIEL. 585 

ing them. No doubt they argued that if they could have some one 
in place of this old Hebrew here they could make enough in a few 
years out of the kingdom to retire from business; but now they 
could not, on the salary the king gave them. 

They could never get rich. Of course, if they could get rid of this 
man they could plunder the government. A great many think it is 
not dishonest to take what belongs to the government, and it don't 
trouble their consciences; and these princes wanted to get this man 
Daniel out of their way, and so they formed a conspiracy to destroy 
him. They raked up his whole past life when he had been with 
Nebuchadnezzar, but they came to the conclusion that they could 
not find anything against him, except touching the law of his God. 
I consider that a greater encomium for him, that he stayed by the 
law of his God, than could be given to any statesmen of the country. 
He had kept the accounts right and had not committed any pecula- 
tions; he had not put any nephews or brothers into office, that had 
defrauded the government, aud there he was standing alone in that 
great city for God and the majesty of the law. They found no oc- 
casion to condemn him. There was not a solitary man that could 
injure his reputation. He had been true to the government and to 
his God. They could only say that he had abided by the law of his 
God. These wicked princes, knowing that Daniel would worship 
no one but the God of Israel, thought if they could get Daniel to do 
something to trap him, so that he would be destroyed, it would be 
just the thing. They were not going to have Daniel cast into a fur- 
nace, as his disciples were in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, but they 
thought if they could get him cast into the den of lions, they would 
soon make way with him. I suppose they had a secret council to- 
gether. Perhaps it was all night. When men want to do some- 
thing mean, they want to do it in the dark. You can see these 
princes having a meeting and conspiring together, and perhaps one 
of them was a lawyer acquainted with the laws of the Medes and 
Persians, and they thought if they could only get a decree signed by 
Darius, that no man should worship any God or anybody else for 
thirty days but Darius, he should be cast into the den of lions. 
44 Remember," they said to one another, "and don't tell your wives 
and daughters, because if you want to keep it private, don't let the 
women know it." They got a decree drawn up to be signed by the 
king, and the penalty was that the one who violated it should be 
cast into the lions' den. I can see these one hundred and twenty 
princes writing that document carefully, line by line, sentence by 
sentence, so that there should be no mistake, because they knew 
that Darius loved Daniel, and if there was any chance by which he 
could save him and keep the law he would do it. And they decreed 
that Darius should sign it without calling upon his prime minister or 
chief secretary, because they knew that if he read it he would not sigi> 



586 THE PE0PIIET DANIEL. 

it. And they also knew that Daniel worshiped the God of the Hebrews, 
and was not going to disobey the law of his God. Probably they 
sent three or four princes to the palace, and they probably toid Da- 
rius what a mighty man he was, and how the whole population loved 
him. They knew his weak point, and they probably told him if he 
signed the decree for nobody to call upon any other God but him it 
would hand his name down 1o posterity, and that mothers would 
teach their children to pray to Darius, and instil his name into their 
minds and make him their God, and that it would lift him up from 
the position he held to make him a God, and all in the kingdom 
would bow down and worship him. 

And they might have argued that if it was kept thirty days it 
would become the universal religion and hand his name down to 
generations. If you want a man to do a mean thing, just touch his 
vanity. These princes had touched Darius' vanity. He thought 
he would like to have all the people worship him. He thought it 
was a very fine suggestion. They did not wait for him to read it all. 
He could see no objection, and put his signet of the Government 
upon it, and one of the princes might have said after he had done 
that, in a tone of mockery: " The laws of the Medes and Persians 
alter not. They can not be changed." Darius, of course, approved 
of them all. And you can see this man going out of the palace 
•elated, saying: " Daniel has looked over our accounts long enough." 
He had watched their accounts to see that no damage came to the 
Government. The news soon spread that Darius had signed such a 
decree. I can just see the man going into the office of the secretary. 
I can see his gray locks and beautiful white beard, as he sat there at 
his desk, and, perhaps, looking over the accounts of these very men 
who were conspiring against him. This messenger comes to Daniel 
and says: "Have you heard of the conspiracy to destroy you?" 
*'No; what is it?" " Why, these one hundred and twenty princes 
have got Darius to sign a decree that every man that shall ask a 
petition of any God or any man within thirty days, save of the king, 
shall be cast into the den of lions." I am afraid if some of us had 
been there, some of the Christians of the nineteenth century, we 
would have said; "Now, look you, don't be too religious; don't be 
too conscientious; don't you let them catch you praying for the next 
thirty days on your knees at your open window. (You know it was 
the custom to pray with an open window toward Jerusalem.) These 
princes have spies and will report it to the king." Or they might have 
said: "It will be ruinous to the Government. Don't you pray to the God 
of the Hebrews, or if you do, don't you do it at an open window. 
If you are determined to pray, hadn't you better pray with your 
shutters closed? Put some paper in the key-hole so that nobody can 
peek in and see you. Get into your bed and pray silently and they 
won't hear you. Call upon your God secretly, and it will be just as 



THE PROPHET DANIEL. 587 

■ well as to pray at an open window." I am afraid that that would 
have been our advice, but do you think that this man who had served 
God all these years was going to deviate a hair's breadth from his 
custom? He had taken his stand on the Lord's side, and he was not 
going to deviate from it. Let all the devils in hell form a conspiracy 
against him, he would not. If he had got to go into the lion's den, 
his God was going there with him. I can just imagine how indig- 
nant he was at the suggestion. The Scripture tells that after the de- 
cree was signed, the old man went to his room three times a day and 
prayed to his God three times a day. He had time to pray. There 
are a good many business men nowadays in Boston who have not 
got time, they think. Statesmen and politicians have not got time to 
pray. You go to Washington and start a prayer-meeting there, and 
they would laugh at the idea, and say, We are Senators and Represent- 
atives; we have so much business we have no time to pray; but this 
person found time. This man, who was the chief man in that kingdom, 
found time — you might say a ruler of the whole world at that time. 
I doubt whether or no there was a man living in his day so busy as 
this man, and he found time. He had not only the king's business 
to attend to, but his own private affairs also, and had to watch these 
one hundred and twenty rascals to keep them from stealing from 
the Government, and yet he prayed three times a day as aforetime, 
and he prayed with his windows open toward Jerusalem. When that 
temple was dedicated in the days of Solomon, we are informed that 
God had promised to answer the prayers of those who prayed with 
their windows open toward Jerusalem. What cared Daniel for the 
lion's den! He was on his way to heaven, and that den had no ter- 
ror for him. He is not going to lose his soul, and so he prays; and 
if there had been any reporters in those days they would probably 
have got that prayer in the next edition. These princes were watch- 
ing. They had two men there probably to take it down. " Now 
listen, now see if he prays to Darius." He goes down on his knees 
and lifts up his voice toward heaven, and prays to the God of Abra- 
ham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and to the God of his 
fathers, but before he gets through he prays for this kingdom, he 
prays for Darius, but not to him. It is all right to pray for kings, 
and we ought to pray more for this country. Let us pray for our 
rulers. We ought to find time. This prophet found time to pray 
every day. I have no doubt he prayed every day for the king and 
for that nation. While he is praying his enemies are taking down 
his prayer, and after he gets through they go to the princes and say: 
"Here is the prayer; we heard the prayer; he prayed for ten min- 
utes, but never called upon Darius at all. He prayed for the He- 
brew God to bless the kingdom, but he did not pray to the king. 1 ' 
And away these men go to tell the king of it, saying: " Oh, Darius, 
live forever. Do you know there is a man in your kingdom who 



5S8 THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

won't obey?'" "Won't obey me! Who is it?" "Why, that ma» 
Daniel." And the king says: "Of course he won't bow down and 
worship me. I might have known he would not have done it. How 
could I have done such a thing?" Instead of condemning Daniel,, 
he condemns himself. He walks up and down in great agony and 
begins to realize what the effect of that decree is to be. But these 
princes say, sardonically: " The laws of the Medes and Persians al- 
ter not." They perhaps twit him of it. They have got him. Dari- 
ous loved Daniel very much, but he did not love him so much as 
your Darius and mine, our Christ, loves us. Our Christ went down 
into the lions' den and kept his law, and for hours Darius set his 
face against delivering up Daniel; but these wicked princes held him 
to his decree, and he would not break the law. They probably said: 
" If you break that, your kingdom will pass from you. The law 
must be kept. The law of the Medes and Persians does not alter." 
So the king gave the command to the princes to cast Daniel into the 
lions' den. You might see, if you had been there, that old man led 
along the streets of Babylon and guided by some mighty men of 
the Chaldean army. He is cast into the den, and they put a stone 
upon the mouth of the den. Then these princes probably rejoiced 
that they had got Daniel out of the way. But Daniel had confidence 
in his God, and we can see him sleeping calmly with his head on 
one of the lions for a pillow. He slept more calmly than the king. 
When morning came, the king orders out his chariot and rolls through 
the streets of the city until he comes to the den. There he calls out 
to Daniel and asks him if his God has delivered him. And hark! 
there is his voice. God has sent down an angel and saved Daniel, and 
he came forth unharmed. And the king is exceedingly glad, and 
takes him in his chariot back to the palace, and they were two joy- 
ful men. God stood by him. He was on the Lord's side. Oh, who 
is on the Lord's side here to-day? If you will take your stand on his 
side he will deliver you from temptation, trial, and darkness. When 
Daniel died he went to heaven. I do not believe he was a stranger 
there; for all knew him, for he was greatly beloved of God. If we 
stand up for what is right in the sight of God, God will bless us, 
and we will be in constant communion with him. Let us pray to 
Daniel's God. 



%WB. r 'l 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

" Understandest thou what thou readest? 1 ' Acts 8: 30. 

One thing I have noticed in studying the Word of God, and that 
is, when a man is filled with the Spirit he deals largely with the Word 
of God; whereas the man who is filled with his own ideas refers 
rarely to the Word of God. He gets along without it, and you sel- 
dom see it mentioned in his discourses. A great many use it only 
as a text-book. They get their text from the Bible, and go on with- 
out any further allusion to it; they ignore it; but when a man is 
filled with the Word, as Stephen was, he cannot help speaking Scrip- 
ture. You will find that Moses was constantly repeating the com- 
mandments; you will find, too, that Joshua, when he came across 
the Jordan with his people, there they stood, and the law of the Lord 
God was read to them, and you will find all through Scripture the 
men of God dealing much with his Word. Why you will find Christ 
constantly referring to them, and saying, "Thus saith the Scriptures." 
Now, as old Dr. Bonar, of Glasgow, said, " The Lord didn't tell 
Joshua how to use the sword, but he told him how he should medi- 
tate on the Lord day and night, and then he would have good suc- 
cess." When we find a man meditating on the words of God, my 
friends, that man is full of boldness and is successful. And the 
reason why we have so little success in our teaching is because we 
know so little of the Word of God. You must know it and have it 
in your heart. A great many have it in their head and not in their 
heart. If we have the Spirit of God in our heart, then we have 
something to work upon. He does not use us because he is not in 
us. Know, as we come to this Word to-day, as Mr. Sankey has been 
singing: 

" No word he hath spoken 
Was ever yet broken." 

Let us take this thought* in John 10: 35: " And the Scripture can 
not be broken." There is a great deal of infidelity around, and it 
has crept into many of the churches, too. These doubters take up 
the Bible and wonder if they can believe it all — if it is true from 
back to back, and a good many things in it they believe are not 
true. I have a good deal of admiration for that colored man who 
was approached by some infidel — some skeptical man, and who told 
him, "Why, the Bible is not true; all scientific men tell us that now; 
589 



£90 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

it's only a bundle of fables." " Bible ain't true?" replied the colored 
man. " Why, I was a blasphemer an' a drinker, an' dat book just made 
me stopswearin', drinkin' lyin', and blasphemin', an' you say 'taint 
true." My friends, the black man had the best of the argument* 
Do you think if the Bible was a bad book it would make men good? 
Do you think if it was a false book it would make men good? And 
so let us take our stand on the colored man's platform, and be con- 
vinced that it is true. When we take it into our hands let us know 
that it is the Word of God, and try to understand it. Many of the 
passages appear to us difficult to understand, but if we could under- 
stand it clearly from back to back at first, it would be as a human 
book; but the very fact that we cannot understand it all at once, is 
the highest proof that it is the Word of God. 

Now, another thought is, that a great many people read it, but 
they read it as a task. They say, " Well, I've read it through, I 
know all that's in it," and lay it aside. How many people prefer 
the morning paper in order to get news. They prefer it, but it is a 
false idea. This Bible is the only newspaper; it tells you all that 
has taken place for the last six thousand years, and it tells you all 
the news of the future. Why, seventeen hundred years before 
Christ, the people were told in it of the coming of Christ. They* 
knew he was coming. The daily paper could not tell us of this; 
they may be written by learned men, brilliant editorial writers, but 
they couldn't have told this. If you want news, study the Bible — 
the blessed old Bible — and you will find it has all the news of the 
world. 

Now, we come up to the question, How to study it. A great many 
read it as I used to read it, just to ease my conscience. I had a rule 
before I was converted, to read two chapters a day. If I didn't do 
it before I retired, I used to jump out of bed and read them; but 
if you had asked me, fifteen minutes after, what I had read, I could 
not have told you. Now this is the trouble with many — they read 
with the head and not with the hearj. A man may read his Bible, 
but when he has closed it you may ask him what chapter he read 
last; and he can not tell you. He sometimes puts a mark in it to 
tell him; without the mark he don't know, his reading has been so 
careless. It is to keep him from reading it again. Just as I used to 
do when hoeing corn; I used to put a stick in the furrow to know 
where I had hoed last. A good many people are just like this; they 
pick up a chapter here, and there is no connection in their reading, 
and consequently don't know anything about the Word of God. If 
we want to understand it, we've got to study it — read it on our knees, 
asking the Holy Ghost to give us the understanding to see what the 
Word of God is; and if we go about it that way, and turn our 
face, as Joshua did, in prayer, and set ourselves to study these 
blessed and heavenly truths, the Ix>rd will not disappoint us, and we 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 591 

will soon know our Bible; and when we know our Bible, then it is 
that God can use us. 

Let me say there are three books which every Christian ought to 
have, and if you haven't them, go and buy them before you get your 
tea. The first, is a good Bible — a large-print Bible. I don't like 
those little-print ones; which you can scarcely see — get one in large 
print. A good many object to a large Bible because they can't 
carry it in their pocket. Well, if you can't carry it in your 
pocket, it is a good way to carry it under your arm. It is 
showing what you are — it is showing your flag. Now, a great 
many of you are coming in from the country to these meetings, and 
when you get on the cars you see people who are not ashamed to sit 
down and play cards. I don't see why the children of God should 
be ashamed to carry their Bible under their arms in the cars. " Ah," 
some say, " that is the spirit of- a Pharisee." It would be the phar- 
isaical spirit if you hadn't dipped down into heavenly truths — -if you 
haven't the spirit of God with you. Some say, " I haven't it." Sup- 
pose you don't read so many of these daily papers, and read a little 
oftener the Bible. Some say, "I haven't time." Take time. I don't 
believe there is a business man in Chicago who couldn't find an hour 
a day to read his Bible if he wanted to. Get a good Bible, then a 
good concordance, and then a scriptural text-book. Whenever you 
come to something in the Word of God that you don't know, hunt 
for its meaning in those books. Suppose, after the meeting, I am 
looking all over the platform, and Dr. Kittredge sa3 7 s, " What are 
you looking for?" and I answer, "Oh, nothing, nothing," he would 
go off. If he thought I hadn't dropped something he wouldn't stay, 
But suppose I had lost a very valuable ring, which some esteemed 
friend had given me, and I told him this, he would stay with me, and 
he would move this organ, and those chairs, and look all over, and 
by looking carefully we would find it. If a man hunts for truths in 
the Word of God, and reads it as if he was looking for nothing in 
particular, he will get nothing. When the men went to California 
in the gold excitement they went to dig for gold, and they worked 
day and night with a terrible energy just to get a little gold. Now, 
my friends, if they wanted to get the pure gold they had to dig for 
it, and when I was there I was told that the best gold was got by 
digging deep for it. So the best truths are got by digging deep for 
them. 

When I was in Boston I went into Mr. Prang's chromo establish- 
ment. I wanted to know how the work was done. He took me to 
a stone several feet square, where he took the first impression, but 
when he took the paper off the stone I could see no sign of a man's 
face; the paper was just tinged. I said I couldn't see any sign of a 
man's face there. " Wait a little," he said. He took me to another 
stone, but when the paper was lifted I couldn't see any impression 



502 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

yet. He took me up — up to eight, nine, ten stones, and then I could 
see just the faintest outlines of a man's face. He went on till he 
got up to about the twentieth stone, and 1 could see the impression 
of a face, but he said it was not very correct yet. Well, he went on 
until he got up, I think, to the twenty-eighth stone, and a perfect 
face appeared, and it looked as if all it had to do was to speak, and 
it would be human. If you read a chapter of the Bible and don't 
see anything in it, read it a second time; and if you can not see any- 
thing in it, read it a third time. Dig deep. Read it again and 
again, and even if you have to read it twenty-eight times, do so, and 
you will see the man Christ Jesus, for he is in every page of the 
Word; and if you take Christ out of the Old Testament you will 
take the key out of the Word. 

Many men in the churches nowadays are saying that the teachings 
in the New Testament are to be believed, but those in the Old are 
not. Those who say this don't know anything about the New. 
There is nothing in the Old Testament that God has not put his 
seal upon. " Why," some people «ay to me, " Moody, you don't be- 
lieve in the flood? All the scientific men tell us it is absurd." Let 
them tell us. Jesus tells us of it, and I would rather take the word 
of Jesus than that of any other one. I haven't got much respect for 
those men who dig down for stones with shovels, in order to take 
away the Word of God. Men don't believe in the story of Sodom 
and Gomorrah, but we have it sealed in the New Testament. " As 
it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah." They don't believe in 
Lot's wife, but he says, "Remember Lot's wife." So there is not a 
thing that men to-day cavil at but the Son of God indorses. They 
don't believe in the swallowing of Jonah. They say it is impossible 
that a whale could swallow Jonah — its throat is too small. They 
forget that the whale was prepared for Jonah; as the colored woman 
said, " Why, God could prepare a man to swallow a whale, let alone 
a whale to swallow a man." We find that he indorses all the points 
in the Old Testament, from Genesis to Revelation. We have only 
one book — we haven't two. The moment a man begins to cut and 
slash, away it all goes. Some don't believe in the first five books. 
They would do well to look into the third chapter of John, where 
they will see the Samaritan woman at the well looking for the com- 
ing of Christ from the first five books of Moses. I tell you, my 
friends, if you look for him you will find him all through the Old 
Testament. You will find him in Genesis — in every book in the Bi- 
ble. Just turn to Luke xxiv. 27, you will find him, after he had 
risen again, speaking about the Old Testament prophets: "And be- 
ginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in 
all the Scripture the things concerning himself." Concerning him- 
self. Don't that settle the question? I tell you, I am convinced in 
my mind that the Old Testament is as true as the New. " And he 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 593 

began at Moses and all the prophets." Mark that "all the prophets." 
Then in the forty-fourth verse: "And he said unto them, These are 
the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that 
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses 
and in the prophets and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened 
he their understanding that they might understand the Scripture." 
If you take Christ out of the Old Testament, what are you going to 
do with the psalms and prophets? The book is a sealed book, if we 
take away the New from it. Christ unlocks the Old and Jesus the 
New. Philip, in teachmg the people, found Christ in the fifty-third 
chapter of Isaiah: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have 
turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the 
iniquity of us all." Why, the earthly Christians had nothing but the 
Old Testament to preach the gospel from — at Pentecost they had 
nothing else. So if there is any man or woman in this assembly who 
believes in the New Testament, and not in the Old, dear friends, you 
are deluded by Satan, because if you read the Word of God you will 
find him spoken of throughout both books. I notice if a man goes 
to cut up the Bible and comes to you with one truth and says, " I 
don't believe this and I don't believe that" — I notice when he begins 
to doubt portions of the Word of God he soon doubts it all. 

Now, the question is, how to study the Bible. Of course, I can 
not tell you how you are to study it; but I can tell you how I have 
studied it, and that may help you. I have found it a good plan to 
take up one book at a time. It is a good deal better to study one 
book at a time than to run through the Bible. If we study one 
book and get its key, it will, perhaps, open up others. Take up the 
book of Genesis, and you will find eight beginnings; or, in other 
words, you pick up the key of several books. The gospel was 
written that man might believe on Jesus Christ, and every chapter 
speaks of it. Now, take the book of Genesis; it says it is the book 
of beginnings. That is the key; then the book of Exodus — it is 
the book of redemption; that is the key-word of the whole. Take 
up the book of Leviticus, and we find that it is the book of sacri- 
fices. And so on through all the different books; you will find each 
one with a key. Another thing: we must study it unbiased. A 
great many people believe certain things. They believe in certain 
creeds and doctrines, and they run through the book to get Scrip- 
ture in accordance with them. If a man is a Calvinistic man, he 
wants to find something in accordance with his doctrine. But if we 
seek truth, the Spiiit of God will come. Don't seek it in the blue 
light of Presbyterianism, in the red light of Methodism, or in the 
light of Episcopalianism, but study it in the light of Calvary. 
Another way to study it is, not only to take one book at a time; 
but I have been wonderfully blessed by taking up one word at a 
time. Take up the word, and go to your concordance and find out 



594 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

all about it. I remember I took up the word "love," and turned to 
the Scriptures and studied it, and got that so I felt that I loved every- 
body. I got full of it. When I went on the street I felt as if I 
loved everybody I saw. It ran out of my fingers. Suppose you 
take the subject of love and study it up. You will get so full of 
it that all you have got to do is to open your lips and a flood of 
the love of God flows upon the meeting. If you go into a courts 
you will find a lawyer pleading a case. He gets everything bearing 
upon one point heaped up so as to carry his argument with all the 
force he can, in order to convince the jury. Now, it seems to me a 
man should do the same in talking to an audience; just think that he 
has a jury before him, and he wants to convict a sinner. If it is 
love, get all you can upon the subject, and talk love, love. 

Take up the word grace. 1 didn't know what Calvary was till I 
studied grace. I got so full of the wonderful grace that I had to 
speak. I had to run out and tell people about it. If you want to 
find out those heavenly truths, take up the concordance and heap 
up the evidence, and you cannot help but preach. Take heaven; 
there are people all the time wondering what it is, and where it is. 
Take your concordance and see what the Word of God says it is. 
Let these men who are talking against blood look into the Word of 
God, and they will find if it don't teach that, it teaches nothing else. 
When we preach about that, some people are thinking we are taking 
our own views. But the Word says, "The life of all flesh is in the 
blood, and without blood there is no remission." The moment a 
man talks against blood he throws out the Bible. Take up Saul, 
study him. You will find hundreds of men in Chicago just like 
him. Take up Lot, study that character. Let me say right here, 
that if we are going to have — and I firmly believe in my soul that 
we are going to have, a revival in the Northwest — if we are going 
to have it, you must bring the people to the study of the Word of 
God. I have been out here for a good number of years, and I am 
tired and sick of these spasmodic meetings, tired of the bonfires 
which, after a little, are reduced to a bundle of shavings. When I 
see men speaking to inquirers in the inquiry-room without holding 
the Word of God up to them, I think their work will not be lasting. 
What we want to do is to get people to study the Word of God, in 
order that the work may be thorough and lasting. I notice when a 
man is brought coolly, and calmly, and intelligently, that man will 
have a reason for being a Christian. We must do that; we must 
bring a man to the Word of God if we don't want this Western 
country filled with backsliders. Let us pray that we will have a 
Scriptural revival, and if we preach only the Word in our churches 
and in our Sunday-schools, we will have a revival that will last to 
eternity. Let us turn back to one of the Old Testament revivals, 
when the people had been brought up from Babylon. Look at the 



HOW TO. STUDY THE BIBLE. 595 

eighth chapter of Nehemiah: "And Ezra, the priest, brought the 
Law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that 
could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh 
month, and he read therein, before the street that was before the 
water gate, from morning until midday, before the men and women 
and those that could understand, and the ears of the people were 
attentive unto the Book of the Law." No preaching there, he 
merely read the Word of God — that is, God's Word — not man's. A 
great many of us prefer man's word to that of God. We are run- 
ning after eloquent preachers — after men who can get up eloquent 
moral essays. They leave out the Word of. God. We want to get 
back to the Word of God. They had an all-day meeting there, 
something like this, "And Ezra opened the Book in the sight of all 
the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it, 
all the people stood up." I can see the great crowd standing up to 
listen to the prophet, just like young robins taking in what the old 
robin brings them. " And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, 
and all the people answered, Amen, Amen. With lifting up their 
hands they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their 
faces to the ground." "So they read in the Book in the Law of God 
distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the 
reading." Now, it strikes me that it is about the height of preach- 
ing to get people to understand the reading of the Word. It would 
be a great deal better if a preacher would sometimes stop when he 
had made a remark, and say, " Mr. Jones, do you understand that?" 
"No, I don't;" and then the preacher might make it a little plainer, 
so that he could understand it. There would be a great difference 
in the preaching in some of the churches. He would talk a little 
less about metaphysics and science, and speak about something else. 
" Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink the 
sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, 
for this day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry, for the joy 
of the Lord is your strength." " For the joy of the Lord is your 
strength." If you will snow me a Bible Christian living on the 
Word of God, I will show you a joyful man. He is mounting up all 
the time. He has got new truths that lift him up over every obsta- 
cle, and he mounts over difficulties higher and higher, like a man I 
once heard of who had a bag of gas fastened on either side, and if he 
just touched the ground with his foot, over a wall or a hedge he 
would go; and so these truths make us so light that we bound over 
every obstacle. 

And when we have those truths our work will be successful. Just 
turn over to Jeremiah 20: 9, to this blessed old prophet. There wa « 
a time when he was not going to speak about the Word of Ged anv 
more. Now I just want to show you this, when a man is filled with 
the Word of God you can not keep him still. If a man has got the 



596 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

Word, he must speak or die. " Then I said, I will not make mention 
of him, nor speak any more in his name, but his Word was in mine 
heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with 
forbearing, and I could not stay." It set him on fire, and so a man 
filled with the Word of God is filled as with a burning fire, and it is 
so easy for a man to work when he is filled with the word of God, 
I heard of a man the other week who was going to preach against 
the blood. I was very anxious to see what he would say about it, 
and I got the paper next morning and found there was nothing else 
there than scriptural quotations. I said that was the very best thing 
he could do. As we see in the 23d chapter of Jeremiah: "Is not 
my Word like as a fire, saith the Lord, that breaketh the rock in 
pieces?" Those hard, flinty rocks will be broken if we give them 
the Word of God. These men in the Northwest that we can not 
reach by our own words, give them this and see if they can not be 
reached. Not only that, if we are full of Scripture ourselves, give 
them what God says, you will fine it easy to preach — you will say 
we haven't to get up so many sermons. It seems to me if we had 
more of the Word of God in our services and give up more of our 
own thoughts, there would be a hundred times more converted than 
there are. A preacher, if he wants to give his people the Word, 
must have fed on the Word himself. A man must get water out of 
a well when there is water. He may dip his bucket in if it is 
empty, but he will get nothing. 1 think the best thing I have heard 
in Chicago, I heard the other day, and it has fastened itself on my 
mind, and I must tell it to you ministers. We had for our subject 
at Farwell Hall the other day, the 17th chapter of John, when the 
Rev. Mr. Gibson said if a man were to come among a lot of thirsty 
men with an empty bucket they wouldn't come to him to drink. He 
said he believed that was the trouble with most of the ministers, as 
that had been the trouble with himself. He hadn't got a bucket of liv- 
ing water, and the people wouldn't come to him. Just look at an audi- 
ence of thirsty men, and you bring in a bucket of clear, sparkling 
water and see how they will go for it. If you go into your Sunday- 
schools and the children look into your buckets and see them empty, 
there is nothing for them there. So, my friends, if we attempt to 
feed others we must first be fed ourselves. 

There is another thing which has wonderfully helped me. That 
is, to mark my Bible whenever I hear anything that strikes me. If 
a minister has been preaching to me a good sermon, I put his name 
down next to the text, and then it recalls what has been said, and 
I can show it to others. You know we laymen have the right to 
take what we hear to one another. If ministers saw people doing 
this they would preach a srood deal better sermons. Not only that, 
but if we understand the Bibles better the ministers would preach 
better. I think if people knew more about the Word than they do, 



nOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 597 

so many of them would not be carried away with false doctrine. 
There is no place I have ever been in where people so thoroughly 
understand their Bibles as in Scotland. Why, little boys could quote 
Scripture and take me up on a text. They have the whole nation 
just educated, as it were, with the Word of God. Infidelity cannot 
come there. A man got up, in Glasgow, at a corner, and began to 
preach universal salvation. "Oh, sir," said an old woman, "that will 
never save the like of me." She had heard enough preaching to 
know that it would never save her. If a man comes among them 
with any false doctrine, these Scotchmen instantly draw their Bibles 
on him. I had to keep my eyes open, and be careful what I said 
there. They knew their Bibles a good deal better than I did. And 
so if the preachers could get the people to read the Word of God 
more carefully, and note what they heard, there would not be so 
much infidelity among us. 

I want to tell you how I was blessed a few years ago, upon hear- 
ing a discourse upon the 30th chapter of Proverbs. The speaker 
said the children of God were like four things. The first thing was, 
" The ants are a people not strong," and he went on to compare the 
chidren of God to the ants. He said the people of God were like 
ants. They pay no attention to the things of the present, but go 
on steadily preparing for the future. The next thing he compared 
them to was the conies. " The conies are but a feeble folk." It 
is a very weak little thing. " Well," said I, " I wouldn't like to be 
a coney." But he went on to say that it built upon a rock. The 
children of God were very weak, but they laid their foundation upon 
a rock. " Well," said I, " I will be like a coney and build my hopes 
upon a rock." Like the Irishman who said he trembled himself, but 
the rock upon which his house was built never did. The next thing 
the speaker compared them to was a locust. I didn't think much of 
locusts, and I thought I wouldn't care about being like one. But he 
went on to read they have "no king, yet they go forth, all of them, 
by bands." There were the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, 
the Methodist bands going forth without a king, but, by and by, our 
King will come back again, and these bands will fly to them. "Well, 
I will be like a locust; my King's away," I thought. The next com- 
parison was a spider. I don't like this at all; but he said if we went 
into a gilded palace filled with luxury, we might see a spider holding 
on to something, oblivious to all the luxury below. It was laying 
hold on the things above. " Well," said I, " I would like to be a 
spider." I heard this a good many years ago, and I just put the 
speaker's name to it and it makes the sermon. But take your Bibles 
and mark them. Don't think of wearing it out. It is a rare thing 
to find a man wearing his Bible out nowadays — and Bibles are cheap 
too. You are living in a land where there are plenty. Study them 
and mark them, and don't be afraid of wearing them. Now don't 



598 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 

you see now much better it would be to study it? And it you are 
talking to a man, instead of talking about your neighbors, just talk 
about the Bible; and when Christian men come together, just com- 
pare notes, and ask one another: " What have you found new in the 
Word of God since I saw you last?" Some men come to me and 
ask me if I have picked up anything new, and I give them what J 
have and they give me what they have. An Englishman asked me 
some time ago, " Do you know much about Job?" " Well, I know 
a little," I replied. "If you've got the key of Job you've got the 
key to the whole Bible." " What, : ' I replied, "I thought it was a 
poetical book." "Well," says he, "I will just divide Job into seven 
heads. The first is the perfect man — untried — and that is Adam and 
Eve before they fell. The second head is tried by adversity — Adam 
after the fall. The third is the wisdom of the world — the three 
friends who came to try to help Job out of his difficulties. They 
had no power to help him at all." He could stand his scolding wife, 
but he couldn't stand them. The fourth head takes the form of the 
Mediator, and in the fifth head God speaks at last. He heard him 
before by the ear, but he hears him now by the soul, and he fell 
down fiat upon his face. A good many men in Chicago are like Job. 
They think they are mighty good men, but the moment they hear 
the voice of God they know they are sinners — they are in the dust. 
There isn't much talk about their goodness then. Here he was with 
his face down. Job learned his lesson. That was the sixth head, 
and in these heads were the burdens of Adam's sin. The seventh 
head was when God showed him his face. Well, I learned the key 
to the Bible; I can not tell how this helped me. I told it to another 
man, and he asked me if I ever thought of how he got his property 
back and his sheep back. He gave Job double what he had, and 
gave him ten children besides, so that he should have ten in heaven 
besides his ten on earth. 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 

"Be careful for nothins, hat in everything hy prayer and supplication with thanksgiving 
let your requests be made known unto God." Philippians 4: 6. 

I will read a few verses in the fourth chapter of Paul's Epistle to 
the Philippians, commencing at the fourth verse: 

" Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say rejoice. Let your 
moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be care- 
ful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the 
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your 
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatso- 
ever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things 
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if 
there be any praise, think on these things." 

I want to call your attention to the. 6th and 7th verses: "Be care- 
ful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with 
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Now it 
may be that some wonder why it is that so many of these requests 
for prayer are coming in here daily — these written requests. And 
perhaps many wonder if there is any good in them. Now it seems 
to me to be perfectly Scriptural: " Let your requests be make known 
unto God." Pray for one another. We are told to pray for the 
household of faith. I pity the child of God who has got into that 
position that he does not want the prayers of God's people. These 
prayers bring a light among sorrowing Christians. I think if you 
should go through the city of Boston, you would find hardly a fami- 
ly but is passing through some great sorrow; some one of its num- 
ber has been taken captive by sin; and I do not know what should 
touch our hearts more than these requests for prayer, abbreviated 
though they are. They come from hearts that are burdened, some 
that are crushed. I remember a man talking against these requests, 
wanting to know what good they did; and I was thinking of a prom- 
inent man in one of our cities. He had a boy in the army, an only 
son, he loved him better than life. But he was a conservative man, 
and when he came into the meeting and presented that boy for 
prayer, the people were amazed to think that a man of his high position 
should get up and present his boy for prayer. But God burdened 
his heart that morning to pray for his boy, as he never praved be- 
509 



600 THE POWER OP PRAYEE. 

fore. When he came into the meeting and asked us to pray, there 
were a great many who lifted their hearts in prayer for the only boy, 
who was then in front of Richmond; and during the day, a dispatch 
came that at that very hour while we were praying for him he was 
mortally wounded and dying— an only son. What comfort that 
father has had since, that prayer went up for him at that hour. God 
undoubtedly burdened his heart to pray for him. 

If God burdens your heart, don't be ashamed to pray yourself 
and ask your friends to pray for you. If you have a son or daugh- 
ter that you are anxious about, go and make your requests known 
unto God; that is what he tells us here, "Let your requests be made 
known unto God." Don't be ashamed to present them for prayer; 
it shows our love for them. What better could we do for our chil- 
dren and our friends than to pray God to bless them; and any one 
that would get angry because we prayed for them must show they 
are under the power of the devil; they must have their hearts hard- 
ened, and be very blind. To me it is very encouraging, day after 
day, to see so many people coming out here to pray, and these requests 
coming in, not only from Boston, but from all New England. It 
shows that God is laying upon the hearts of his people this burden 
of prayer. And shall not we all pray that this blessed work, that 
has so gloriously commenced, shall deepen; and that there may be 
hundreds and thousands of scoffers, and men that are making light 
of these requests and jeering at our prayers, may become convicted 
and converted? Our God is able to break the hardest hearts. Let 
us make our requests known unto God; and let us expect he will 
give us an answer. He is constantly answering prayer for the sons 
and daughters that have been presented here; and in other places, 
sons and daughters who have been presented for prayers have been 
saved. 1 have just heard from Chicago; one church took in 162 
members while we were there, and the next communion they took 
in 500 members. God is answering prayer. My dear friends, let us 
keep on praying. God is able to save these people, and there is 
none but God who does answer prayer. Don't let infidelity come 
in and make us believe that God has got a deaf ear and cannot an- 
swer: or that his arm is shortened and he cannot deliver. Our God 
is a prayer- answering God. How many mothers have had their sons 
and daughters saved, not through some sermon, but by the mighty 
power of God converting them. 

There is just one thought, in that passage I have read, which I 
think you are ready to hear. It was suggested to me by an English- 
man some time ago, and I am anxious to call your attention to it. 
It occurs in the 6th verse: "Be careful for nothing, but in every- 
thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your re- 
quests be made known unto God." He says there are three things 
enjoined upon us in this passage. First, that we should be careful 



THE POWER OF PRAYER. 601 

for nothing; second, that we should be prayerful for everything; and 
third, that we should be thankful for anything. Careful for nothing, 
prayerful for everything, thankful for anything. We should not be 
troubled about anything that may happen to us, but should always 
go to God in prayer for all our wants, and should be thankful .'or 
any answer we may get to our petitions. 

A great many people get discouraged because they pray for tem- 
poral blessings; for what is not good for them. God does not an- 
swer such prayers; and they ought to thank him for it. Now the 
men who are taken up the most prominently in Scripture, perhaps 
the most eminent men who ever lived, don't get their prayers 
answered. It is no sign that God does not love us, be- 
cause we don't get our prayers answered, as we want them answered. 
There is Moses, whom God takes up more than any man in the 
Old Testament. He prayed as no one else prays. He was a man 
of prayer, and we can hear him praying God to take him over the 
sea to the goodly land. But God did not answer his prayer — not be- 
cause he did not love him, but because he had something else in 
store for him. We can imagine him talking to Moses as a mother 
to a child, who is asking for something she does not wish him to 
have. God says: "That will do, Moses! I hear you; I know you 
want to go over there pretty bad; but I am not going to let you go. 
It's no use." But God did for him that which was much greater 
than any answer to his prayer could have been. He did for him 
what he never did for any other man. He conferred upon him the 
greatest, the most sublime distinction he could give to any mortal. 
God buried him. He could not see the promised land, and as some 
one has beautifully expressed it, "God kissed his soul away." God 
did not answer his prayer. Yes, he did answer it, if that which hap- 
pened later could be called an answer. He did answer it fifteen hun- 
dred years afterwards, when he appeared with Elias on the Mount of 
Transfiguration. It appeared that his prayer was not answered. 
But it was answered at last. So it was with Elijah. There he was 
praying under the juniper tree; he was praying that he might die. 
But God did not answer his prayer. But it was by the power of 
prayer that he was rendered fearless, when he was set before Ahab. 
Look at him calling down fire on Mount Carmel. All the prophets 
could not call the fire down; he prayed, and the fire came. He 
prayed under the juniper tree that he might die; but God did not 
answer his prayer. Why not? Because it would have been a dis- 
grace to God — the man's dying then under the juniper tree. God 
loved him too well to answer his prayer. God does not answer our 
prayers, sometimes, because we ask for things that would be harm- 
ful to us. We would get a good many things we ask for, if God did 
not love us too well to answer our prayers. 

A man was shaving himself once, and his little boy came up to him 



602 THE GEEAT PHYSICIAN. 

and said, " Father, let me have the razor." And his father said, 
"Why, mv boy, what do you want it for?" "Oh, I just want to 
whittle a little with it; I just want to play with it. - ' The father 
said: "No, I cannot let you have it, my boy. You will cut your- 
self." "No, I won't! I want it; it shines so!" The father said, 
"You cannot have it." Do you say the father did not love the boy? 
he loved him too well. Now there are a great many of God's people 
who are just like this little boy: They are praying for razors. God 
knows what we want better than we do, in temporal things. God; 
loves us too well. There was Paul. He prayed and prayed earn- 
estly that God would take the thorn out of his flesh. But God said: 
" That will do, Paul; I cannot do it. The thorn must remain; it will 
give you more grace." Then Paul thanked God for the thorn. He; 
wouldn't have it out if he could, because he got more grace by it. 
These things bring us closer to Christ. All prayers are not answered 
just as we want them answered. He loves us just the same, if we 
don't get them answered just as we want them answered. We 
may then rely upon it, God has got something better in store for us. 
We can pray for the conversion of friends, because God likes that, 
Let us go boldly, and call God to convert our friends; and God will 
hear and answer our prayers. 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 

** Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that 
sent me, hath everlasting life, aud shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from 
death into life. 1 ' John 5: 24. 

We have for our lesson to-day the 5th chapter of this gospel ac- 
cording to John. Of course, we have not time to read the whole, 
chapter; but most of you, perhaps, have been familiar with it. This 
man had been lame eight and thirty years; and he had been lying at 
the pool; and when the waters were troubled, others that were bet- 
ter able than he, stepped in and were cured. He could not reach the 
healing waters, and had given up all hope of ever reaching them. 
The thought I want to call your attention to is this — that Christ 
helped the man that could not help himself. I remember that, dur- 
ing the war, when a doctor came into the ward of a hospital, he 
always went for the worst cases first, those that were most severely 
wounded; and I have an idea that that is the way the Great Physi- 



THE GEEAT PHYSICIAN. 603 

cian works. Some wonder why such abandoned characters are 
saved first, in meetings like this; but it seems to be the Great Physi- 
cian's way. Here is a man that has been eight and thirty years lame; 
and Christ came to him and said, " Wilt thou be made whole?" And 
the man told his pitiful story, that he had no one to help him and 
could not get to the pool; and Christ, with a word, commanded him 
to arise, take up his bed and walk, and he did so. It was instan- 
taneous; the man did not have to wait six months, or six years, and 
go to the apothecary for a lot of herbs to swallow. It was done at 
once. 

The keynote of this chapter of John is the power of the word of 
the Son of God. After healing this man, he tells the people precious 
truths, and you will find always that he did so after performing a 
miracle. These miracles were, perhaps, designed to wake them up, 
to arouse their attention. Let me read the 24th verse, which I think 
is one of the most precious verses in the whole Bible. If every 
other one were blotted out, there would be truth enough in that verse 
to save every soul in this building. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed 
from death into life." 

I suppose a great many of those Jews wondered and marveled at 
this wonderful miracle, that this lame man had been made well; but 
Christ tells them that the hour is coming when the very dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of man, and come forth. We find, in the 
fourth chapter, the Centurion coming and speaking about his son 
being sick, and Christ sent back word, "Thy son liveth;" and he re- 
turned and he found that at that very hour the son was made well. The 
Jews are marveling at these wonderful things; but he says, "The 
hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice and come forth." 
soon after, Jairus' daughter was raised from the dead. He had un- 
believers and skeptics around him then, as we have now. The phi- 
losophers, doubtless, said: "This child was not dead; they made a 
mistake; she was gone into a sort of faint." A little while after, he 
met the son of the widow of Nain; and he spoke the word, and 
brought him back to life. Doubtless, a good many said that the 
young man was not dead; and so now men try to explain away the 
miracles by natural causes. So, he took Lazarus after he had been 
dead four days, and his body was turned black and was putrefying, 
and brought him to life. 

When Christ told these men that the dead would hear his voice 
a,nd come to life, he did not leave them without some evidence that 
what he said was true. He gave them a specimen of his power. 
You have merchants here who put specimens of goods in their win- 
dows; and so Christ gave us a specimen of what he was going to do 
on the resurrection morning. So we have no ground to doubt that 



604 THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 

all the dead will be brought to life. Therefore, let us write over all 
our cemeteries: "The dead shall rise again; they shall come forth 
and shall live." Now that was pretty strong meat for those Jews. 
The idea that they should hear the voice of this carpenter, or the 
son of a carpenter, of Nazareth; the idea that his voice should raise 
all the dead, is pretty strong meat. But now he just brings in the 
witness. It you turn over to the 33d verse — and he speaks now of 
the witnesses that testify of him: "Ye sent unto John and he bare 
witness unto the truth." Turn back to the 19th verse of the 1st chap- 
ter of John, and you will find that the priests and Levites were sent 
down from Jerusalem to ask John who he was. They came and said 
" Who art thou?" x\rid he confessed he was not the Christ, and 
said, " I am not the Christ;" and they asked him, "What then? Art 
thou Elias?" He said, "I am not." "Art thou that prophet?" and 
he answered, "No." "Then said they unto him, Who art thou? 
that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest 
thou of thyself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the 
wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet 
Esaias." Or, in other words, "I am just nobody. Take word back 
to those men in Jerusalem I am nothing but just a voice in the wil- 
derness." John was all the time crying down himself, and crying 
up Christ. " I must decrease, but he must increase." And that is 
really the very height of preaching, when men make themselves out 
nothing and Christ everything. When they preach down self and 
preach up Christ, then the Holy Ghost can work. He said, " I am 
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of 
the Lord, as saith the Prophet Esaias." "And they asked him and 
said unto him, Why baptized thou then if thou be not that Christ nor 
Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize 
with water; but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. 
He it is, who coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe's 
latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in 
Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next 
day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and he saith, Behold the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." Now he 
said to those very men, who wer sent to John to inquire who he was, 
"And he testified of me, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sins of the world." He said, T have got another witness. 
" I receive not testimony from man; but these things I say, that ye 
might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light; and ye were 
willing for a season to rejoice in his light." But I have greater 
witness than that of John; "for the works which the Father hath 
given to me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me 
that the Father hath sent me." 

Now, I have not only got John for a witness, but these works I am 
doing. How are you going to account for that man, who was lame 



THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. 605 

for thirty-eight years and made whole by my voice? How are you 
going to account for that Centurion's son, who was dying; and I 
spoke the word, and he was made whole? These works I am doing 
in your sight. If you will not believe my witnesses, believe me for 
my work's sake. What overflowing testimony they had that he was 
manifest in the flesh and came from heaven to do the will of his 
Father. 

But he says, I have got another witness besides those works: 
u x\nd the Father himself which hath sent me, hath borne witness of 
me." Not that he is going to, but hath already done it. When he 
was baptized in Jerusalem and came out of the Jordan, there was a 
voice fell from heaven saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased; hear ye him." God bare witness that Christ was 
his Son: "This is my beloved Son, in whom 1 am well pleased." 
Then, again, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when he took Peter, 
James and John up with him, and Moses and Elias were talking with 
him, and a cloud came upon him; and there came a voice out of the 
cloud from the throne of heaven, saying, "This my beloved Son, 
hear ye him." God bare witness for Christ; what more witness do 
we want? Then he said, I have another: "Search the Scriptures; 
for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which 
testify of me." There are four witnesses: John the Baptist; the 
works that he performed; God his Father; and the Scriptures. 

And if you turn over into the Old Testament, you will find that 
Moses and the Psalmist and the Prophets all testified of Christ. 
Why, when Philip went out there to preach to that eunuch, he found 
him reading the 53rd chapter of Isaiah; and he commenced and 
preached Christ to him. He found Christ in the Old Testament. 
There are a great many men in Boston who cannot find Christ there, 
because the devil has blinded them. If they had their eyes open, 
they could find him upon every page of Scripture; if you hunt for 
him you will find him there. "Search the Scriptures; for in them 
ye think ye have aternal life, and they are they which testify of me." 
Yes, Moses wrote of him, David wrote of him, and Elijah and the 
prophets testified of him ; and we find that nearly every prophet 
testified of his coming. No one wrote more beautifully of him than 
the prophet Isaiah. It seems to me that we have got all the proof 
we want that this Jesus Christ was the Son of God; that he came 
from the bosom of the Father, and came to save the world. If you 
will call upon him he will help you. Just come to him and he will 
give you power to speak for him. He will open your eyes, and you 
will see him. He will open your ears and you will hear the voice of 
the blessed gospel. Ask and you will receive. 



THE YOKE OF JESUS. 

** Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye 
shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 1 ' Matthew 
11: 29, 30. 

There is a very common excuse, that it is a very hard thing to be 
a Christian. How many times I have heard that in the last four 
weeks! u I would like to be a Christian; but it is a very hard thing 
to be a Christian." Now think of that, that the Lord is a hard mas- 
ter and the devil is an easy one; for we are serving one or the other; 
there is no such thing as being neutral. A man cannot serve God 
and mammon. We must be serving the prince of darkness, or the 
Lord Jesus Christ, There is no such thing as a man being on both 
sides, at the same time. Is it true that the Lord is a hard master, 
and the devil an easy one? It seems to me that the ones who can 
testify in this matter are those who have served both masters. I have 
yet to find the first man or woman, that ever served the Lord Jesus, 
that came with the testimony that he is a hard master. I have yet 
to find the man that has served the devil that does not testify that he 
is a hard master. The way of the transgressor is hard. 

You go to New York, and as you go down to the Tombs you will 
find that, after the men have been tried in the police court, they are 
taken right out of the court and into the Tombs over a little iron 
bridge, having an iron railing. On one side of the bridge is writ- 
ten, in letters of iron, " The way of the transgressor is hard;" on the 
other side it is called the " Bridge of Sighs." Over that bridge, 
hundreds of young men pass every year. You ask them if they 
haven't found the way of the transgressor hard. Go down to yon- 
der prison, and ask that man whose days are blasted for this life, 
who has broken the hearts of all his friends and disgraced them, if 
he hasn't found the way of the transgressor hard. Go and ask that 
child of God, who has been serving Christ twenty or thirty years, 
whether he is a hard master. He will tell you that his yoke is easy 
and his burden light. I don't believe there was a greater lie ever 
came ont of hell than that God is a hard master, and the devil an 
easy one. " The way of the transgressor is hard." And all the men 
who are serving the devil faithfully will say that they find the way 
hard. You take the most faithful follower that Satan has in Boston 
to-day, and bring him on to this platform; and he will tell you that 
he has found that broad way a hard way; it has been dark; he has 
606 



THE YOKE OF JESUS. 607 

had the lashings of conscience, and it has been terribly dark and 
gloomy; and he will testify that he has found the way of the trans- 
gressor hard. Then go and find the most eminent saint of God there 
is in Boston, and you will see heaven beaming forth on his counte- 
nance and eternity flashing in his eye, and his face light up as he 
talks about his master; and he will testify that the Lord Jesus has 
been an easy master, and the devil a hard one. 

My dear friend, it is a truth, God is not a hard master. Don't let 
those young people think it is a hard thing to serve God. When 
Christ is in the heart, it is their delight and pleasure to follow him, 
and to work for him, and to be with him; so don't go off with that 
delusion that it is a hard thing to serve God. I will tell you where 
you have made a mistake. You have tried to serve God in the flesh, 
before you have been born of the Spirit, and you have failed; and 
you have tried and failed, and you have kept trying and kept failing, 
until by and by you have given up, with a sigh, exclaiming, " Oh, it 
is a hard thing to be a Christian!" It is not only a hard thing, but 
it is impossible for any one to serve God in the flesh. I would as 
soon tell a man to leap over the moon as to serve God before he has 
been born of the Spirit. " The natural man is not subject to the 
law of God." The natural man is at war with God; there is a con- 
flict going on between him and God; he is at enmity against God; 
but when the Lord Jesus comes into the heart, and we have been 
born of the Spirit, and have passed from death into life and become 
heirs of eternal life, then his yoke is easy. In fact, the yoke don't 
gall at all. 

When we were in Glasgow, there was a lady said to me: "I wish 
you would pray for my husband. I am very anxious for him ;" and 
we prayed for him. He was a large business man; and in the course 
of a week he came into the meetings, and that text was brought out, 
"My yoke is easy and my burden is light," wherein Christ invites 
the world to himself. u Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and 
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find 
peace for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 
Well, the m'an said, " 1 will try and see if his yoke is easy." He 
went home and told his wife he was going to become a Christian; 
and he tried to pray with her that night. The next day she came to 
me in great distress and said her husband had tried and failed. He 
thought the Bible could not be true; because the yoke was not easy, 
and the burden was not light. I said, " Perhaps he has got the yoke 
on before he becomes converted; and if he has, it will crush him to 
the earth." I had an interview with him, and told him he must be 
born of the Spirit before he could wear that yoke; and I preached 
Christ unto him, and he received the Son of God as his Savior. He 
just opened the door of his heart; and the Son of God came in and 



60S THE YOKE OF JESUS. 

took possession of that heart; when he surrendered himself up it was 
in every corner of his heart, and the Lord went there with eternal 
life. He had a large factory in Glasgow, and wanted us to go there 
and preach to his men. 

It is a pretty good sign a man is converted when he wants others 
converted. We went to the factory, and that business man went 
into the inquiry-room and took his seat right by the side of some of 
his employes and talked with them; and when we left Glasgow there 
wasn't a happier man of all our acquaintance there. He found his 
yoke was easy and his burden light, when his heart was right with 
God. When you receive Christ, you will find that the yoke will be 
easy and God will not be a hard master. And wherever you find a 
Christian having a hard time of it, he is trying to serve God and the 
world too; he has not surrendered up the whole heart to God, he is 
trying to see how much of the world he can have and serve Christ; 
all the time he is having a conflict and battle. But wherever the 
heart is surrendered wholly to God, J testify to it that the yoke is 
easy and the burden is light. 

But then there are a great many young people, the moment you 
talk to them about accepting the invitation to this feast and speak 
.about the inquiry-room, go out as if they had been struck with a 
plague; they think that to be Christians is the most gloomy thing 
in the world. That was my trouble, I thought if I was going to die 
of consumption or some miserable disease, and when I found I could 
not live any longer, I would accept Jesus Christ and then get into 
Heaven. That is the way I used to argue when I was younger; but 
I was deceived by Satan. I thought Christians had to put on a long 
face and walk straight through the world, and not look to the right- 
hand nor to the left. That is another of Satan's lies; and there are 
a great many people who would rather believe a lie than the truth. 
Does it make a man gloomy to be pardoned of all his sins? People 
are not very gloomy when they go to a feast. The gospel is a feast. 
God wants you to come to him, and invites you to the marriage sup- 
per of his only Son. Don't think it is gloomy to accept of this invi- 
tation, and that you have to put on a long face all your days. You 
will never know what true peace is until you know God; and then 
you will have peace that will flow like a river. Oh, may God help 
you to-day to accept of this invitation, and to say: "Yes, I will ac- 
cept'of this invitation; and by the grace of God, I will be at the 
marriage feast of the Lamb." There is nothing to hinder you but 
our own will. "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." 
t is not because people cannot come. Do you think God sends out 
an invitation for you to come to that feast, and does not give you the 
power to come? With the invitation, God gives you the power to 
accept of it. And let me say again, don't give that excuse that it is 
going to make you gloomy, and that you have to give up all the 



I 






THE YOKE OF JESUS. 609 

pleasures of this world. We have all the treasures of heaven, when 
we have accepted that invitation. 

There is another excuse very common. People say, "I don't know 
that he will receive me. Who has he invited when these three men 
refused to come? He said, "Go out into the highways and hedges 
and compel them to come." Go into the cellars and garrets, bring 
the drunkarks, thieves and vagabonds; all of them in fact, don't 
slight any, but go and invite them all to the feast; and, my friends, 
don't think for a moment that he will not receive you. If you have 
accepted that invitation, if you will come, he will receive you. If 
you have got a son and he has been a wanderer on the face of the 
earth, when that boy comes back and confesses his wanderings don't 
you forgive him? If he comes back and confesses his sins, are you 
not ready to forgive him? And if there is one here to-day who has 
wandered away from the fold, return to God and he will forgive you 
freely, and let you sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
You need not be afraid but that God will receive all who will come. 
He will receive you, just as you are; and don't let Satan make you 
believe that he will cast any one out, or turn any one away, because 
they are too bad. Do you think that he will commence down here 
now, after he has been receiving sinners for 1900 years; and that he 
will begin with you, because you have a bad character, and because 
your life has been bad? If you are ready to turn to him, he will re- 
ceive you. 

Don't let Satan make you believe God will not receive you, if you 
come. He will receive every one who comes. I don't care how far 
you have wandered — how black your life has been; if you will only 
come home to-day, the Lord will give you a welcome. Make no 
more excuses; say with the prodigal, "I will return; I will be at the 
feast, God helping me; and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 
in the kingdom of God." Oh, may God bring many in this assembly 

to that feast. 

39 



WHAT MUST I DO? 

44 What must I do to be sared V % Acts, 16: 30. 

We have for a text to-night a very solemn and important question,. 
"What must I do to be saved?" You will find it in Acts 16th and 
30th. The question, " What must I do ?" is very common. Un- 
doubtedly, there is not a man or woman in this assembly but that has 
said, a thousand times in their life, "What must I do?" A great 
many merchants have asked that question during these hard times, 
What must I do to succeed, to keep from going into bankruptcy? 
Lawyers that have difficult cases in court very often ask themselves, 
over and over, What must I do? Doctors that have some patients 
that baffle all their skill ask the question, What must I do? And 
these questions, we say, are very important. A business man thinks 
it is very important that he shouldn't fail in business. Perhaps many 
of you are out of work, and your families are actually in want to- 
night; and you have asked yourself, during the day, What must I 
do to take care of my family? Well, that is very important. A man 
ought to take care of his family. But take all these questions and 
put them together; none of them are to be compared with the im- 
portance of the one that we have here to-night, " What must I do 
to be saved?" For all in this assembly are either lost or saved. 
Not that we are going to be lost when we die, but that we are al- 
ready lost, if we have not been saved; and the great question is, 
How am I to be saved? 

The Philippian jailor was in trouble when he asked that question; 
and like a great many others, I suppose he thought he had got some- 
thing to do to save himself. What was Paul's answer to his question, 
"What must I do to be saved?" Was it that he was to weep and 
pray? Was it that he was to go and work for the Lord for fifteen 
or twenty years; and if he did pretty well, the Lord would save him? 
Was it that he was to go oat and give money to the poor, and he 
should be saved? Was he to build churches, or endow colleges and 
seminaries, and that would save him? Were there any works about 
it at all? I don't think a person in this house would dare to give 
Paul's and Silas's answer. There isn't any portion of Scripture that 
has been so much copied from, in your day and mine, as the very 
answer that Paul and Silas gave the Philippian jailor, " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." But then we very 
often stop there. The next verse reads like this: "And they spake 
unto him the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house." 
610 



WHAT MUST I DO ? 611 

We are told in the 11th chapter of Acts, I think it is, that when 
Peter was giving an account of Cornelius's conversion, the Lord 
sent him to Cornelius, the first Gentile, to tell him whereby he was 
to be saved. When Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailor that he 
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they didn't stop there, as we 
very often do; but they spake unto him the Word of the Lord. And 
if a man will lay hold of the Word of the living God, he will be 
saved. Take God at his word. He has offered salvation to every 
man that wants it. 

You turn to the 2d chapter of Acts, when there were three thou- 
sand converted right there on the spot. What was the word that 
Peter used? I don't know but that Paul gave the Philippian jailer 
the same words that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. It 
says here in the 21st verse, "And it shall come to pass that whoso- 
ever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." And it 
really has come to pass in Boston. We have seen many a man, 
lately, who has been saved by calling on the name of the Lord. 
They tell us they have tried many Physicians, and have not been 
helped; that they have gone to this institution and that institution 
and signed the pledge, and done everything to get victory over 
their appetites; and at last they cried unto the Lord and he saved 
them. Thank God we are living in that day, right here in Boston. 
God is not so far off as some people would have him. He is right 
here, and at work in this city — "Ye men of Israel, hear these words" 
— that is what Peter said to those men at Jerusalem — "Jesus, of Naz- 
areth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and won- 
ders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye 
yourselves also know; him, being delivered by the determinate coun- 
sel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands 
have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed 
the pains of death; because it was not possible that he should be 
hoi den of it." Then, in the 30th verse: "Therefore, being a 
prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that 
of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up 
Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resur- 
rection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh 
did not see corruption.- This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we 
are all witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, 
and having received of the father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he 
hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. For David is not 
ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto 
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy foot- 
stool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God 
hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
Christ." That is the kind of Word they preached in those days. 
" Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and 



612 WHAT MUST I DO ? 

said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, 
what shall we do?" Thay were terribly in earnest. I wish I could 
wake up this audience, so that men would cry right out in the middle 
of the sermon, "What must we do to be saved?" That is what we 
want. They talk about there being too much excitement in this 
Tabernacle. I wish we had a little more of it. ("Amen!") 

I wish we could wake men up in this Tabernacle as on the day of 
Pentecost, to cry out, " Men and brethren, what must we do?" We 
want salvation. We haven't got half enough excitement now. And 
Peter said, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name 
of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the 
gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is with you, and to your 
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord shall 
call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, 
Save yourselves from this untoward generation. 

And what was the result? Three thousand right then and there 
were born of God, converted, turned right toward Christ, turned 
from the world! They laid hold of eternal life through the Word 
that was preached to them; and so we find the Philippian jailer right 
there that night, he was not only convicted of his sin but was con- 
verted and baptized, he and his whole house that night. Quick 
work, wasn't it? Went to bed careless; no doubt he treated Paul 
and Silas a good deal harder than the law required him to do; he 
put thirty-nine stripes on their bare backs, made them fast in the 
stocks, and put them into the inner prison and laid down and went 
to sleep. It didn't trouble his conscience at all, and yet this hard- 
hearted wretch was converted. Yet men stand right up here, with 
an open Bible, and say: "We don't believe in sudden conversion. 
We think it ought to be more gradual. We think if a man tries re- 
ally hard, and does the best he can, he can be saved in the course of 
a few years." And yet every conversion that is recorded in that 
Bible is as the flashing of a meteor — men believing the Word of 
God. 

You can be saved this very night if you will, while I am preach- 
ing. Let everything else go, and lay hold of God's strong arm, and 
his Word. He has promised to save all that put their trust in him. 
Sinner, you cannot save yourself; your help must come from above; 
and if you will lay hold of God, you can be saved now. If you will 
turn to the 6th chapter of Hebrews, you will find it is written, 
"Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of 
promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; 
that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to 
lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge, to 
lay hold upon the hope set before us." Now we are saved by just 
laying hold of that sure hope. No one ever laid hold of Christ yet 
that has been disappointed. I have yet to find the first man or the 



WHAT MUST I DO ? 613 

first woman that ever laid hold of the Word of God, and built their 
hopes of heaven upon that Word, that were ever disappointed. They 
find light, peace, comfort, joy and rest to their weary souls; and if 
every man and woman in this assembly to-night, who wants to be 
saved, will just take Christ at his word, lay right hold of the Word, 
and say, "I believe it; I will trust the word," there will be light and 
peace. 

If you don't get hold of that, let me give you another illustration. 
You certainly know what it is to look. A mother will teach a child 
to look before it is a year old; and there is a passage in which we 
are told, " Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." 
If a man wants to be miserable, let him look within; if he wants to 
be troubled, let him look around him; if he wants true peace, let 
him look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If you want 
to get saved, quit looking at that church or that man; for all the 
churches and ministers in Christendom cannot save you. If you 
look unto Jesus, he will save you. Will you look to-night? You 
certainly can get hold of that illustration — saved by just looking. 

There was a man got up in one of our meetings, and said he had 
been forty-three years learning three things. First, he couldn't do 
anything toward his own salvation. You've all got to learn that 
lesson before you can be saved. The next thing was that God 
didn't require him to do anything. That was worth learning, wasn't 
it, if it did take him forty-three years to learn it? And the third 
was, that Christ had done it all himself. That little child can learn 
those things if it will. God doesn't require you to save yourself. If 
it is a new birth, it must be the work of God and not the work of 
man; if it is a new birth, it must be created by God. We cannot 
give life to a little insect; all the philosophers in Boston cannot give 
life to a little fly. But God is the author of life; and it is a new life 
given when we are saved and born of God. It is the work of God; 
and we get that by letting God save us. 

If you, friend, that want to be^ saved, will just stop trying to-night 
and get done with your works and let the Lord save you, he will 
save you. That was my experience. I tried hard to save myself. 1 
have talked with a great many Christians, and I find that they all 
tell the same story, that they worked and tried and waited very 
earnestly; and after all they could not save themselves, and had to 
let the Lord save them. Some one asked the Indian who saved 
him, and he made a circle of dead leaves, and placed a worm in the 
centre and set fire to the leaves; the worm endeavored to escape, 
and finally curled up in the centre and made up its mind to die. 
Then the Indian reached forth his hand and saved the worm; that 
was the way, he said, the Lord saved him. And, my friends, he will 
save you to-night, if you will let him. What must I do to be saved? 
Give up trying to save yourself, and let God save you now. I had 



G14 WHAT MUST I DO? 

a dear friend in Chicago who was drowned in Lake Michigan, be- 
cause he would not stop trying to save himself, but would make 
frantic efforts to hold on to his would-be rescuer, although urged 
not to do so. If ever you get into the kingdom of God, you have 
got to be brought there by Christ himself, and stop trying to save 
yourself, and let the Lord save you in his own way. It says here, 
in Isaiah 43rd and 25th, " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." 
And jgain in the 41st chapter and the 10th verse: "Fear thou not, 
for I am with thee; be not dimayed, for 1 am thy God; I will 
strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with 
the right hand of my righteousness." It takes the same grace to keep 
us as it does to save us; but, "My grace is sufficient for thee." Go 
boldly to the throne of grace and get help in the time of need. 

My friends, God cannot only save every man and woman in this 
assembly to-night, but he can keep us until he presents us before the 
throne of grace faultless, and with exceeding joy. I can imagine 
some men saying, "If Mr. Moody knew my life, he would not stand 
there and say God can save so easy. I have some habits that are 
fastened upon me so that I cannot get rid of them; I am a slave to 
some habits; I would like to be set free." What did Christ come to 
do? To set the captives free, to open the prison doors and set the 
captives free. Are you a slave to some habits, to some sin that is 
taking you hell ward, and making your home as dark as hell, and 
your life as miserable as Satan wants to make it? I come to-night 
to tell you that Jesus will save you if you will let him. That is what 
Jesus left the throne for, to come down into this world, for to seek 
and save that which is lost; and you can be saved to-night if you 
will let him into your heart. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved." Believe that he will save you from your 
sins to-night. 

My friends, if you want to know what you must do to be saved, 
just believe, just pray, just lay hold, just take Christ; and you are 
saved. Oh, may God bless everyone in this house is the prayer of 
my heart! If you have not accepted Christ, do it to-night. Don't 
leave this house until you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. 



CHRISTIANS NOT TO FAINT. 

" And let us not be weary in well doing ; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.' 7 
Galatians 6:9. 

When I was talking about the qualifications of Christian workers, 
the first week or two I was here, I meant to have spoken of Per- 
severance; but I failed to do so. I want this morning to call your 
attention to that necessary qualification, if we are going to be suc- 
cessful in the vineyard of the Lord. I think that a great many fail 
because they don't persevere. It is not the man or the woman who 
is ready and willing to work for a few weeks, and if they don't suc- 
ceed, give it up; but it is those who work right on, day and night, 
who shall reap. There is the promise, " We shall reap if we faint 
not." And I have yet to find the first man, or first woman, who 
has been to work for God, and has kept right on and persevered, 
that has not been successful. It may take weeks, months and years; 
but God has promised. There is his Word, " We shall reap if we 
faint not." 

Some people tell us, we don't work enough. I haven't but little 
hope of any spasmodic effort, where men and women are just roused 
up to work for a few weeks; and if that is all these Tabernacle meet- 
ings do, they will be a perfect failure. There are a good many things 
said against special meetings, revival meetings, and there is a good 
deal of truth about what some people say; and that is, if people are 
only aroused up for a few weeks or months to go to work, why the 
thing is almost a failure. What we want is to persevere, and re- 
member that we have got the Word of the Lord that, " We shall 
reap, if we faint not." Faith is an act of the mind; but works is an 
outward sign of the faith. You cannot have true faith without hav- 
ing works, any more than you can have fire without heat. If a man 
tells me he has faith in Jesus Christ, and hasn't any impulse to work 
for God, I doubt his word. I wouldn't give much for his faith; be- 
cause, if a man has really true faith in Christ and believes the word 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he cannot help but work. If a man says 
he is converted, and doesn't work for his fellowmen, I doubt his 
conversion. He may make many professions; but if he hasn't time 
to go out into the vineyard and work for God, it is a true sign he 
hasn't been born of God. 

For fifteen years I was Superintendent of a Sabbath-school in a 
mission district in Chicago; and you that have been engaged in that 
work know how very discouraging it is, when you have the parents 
615 



616 CHRISTIANS NOT TO FAINT. 

pulling against you seven days in the week, and you have the chil- 
dren only one hour in the week. It is toiling all night and catching 
nothing, very often. But I noticed that the teachers who got dis 
couraged and gave up their classes, and went to one school after 
another, never succeeded; but those that held on day after day, 
week after week, and month after month, have always been success- 
ful and blessed. 

When I was in Chicago the last time, there was a young mttn who 
used to have a class in the school I was connected with, and he had 
been toiling months and years without having much results, as far 
as conversions were concerned. Last spring he took his boys out 
into the country and camped out for a week or two; and out of the 
fifty scholars, there were but ten that were not Christians; and when 
I was there last season he was one of the ushers at our meetings, 
and every once in a while there would be a request for prayers for 
that class. The class began to grow; members began to be con- 
verted, and they went out after others; and when we left Chicago, 
they had gone up to 180, and there were over 80 in that class work- 
ing for the Savior! "We shall reap if we faint not." There was the 
teacher being blessed; he was persevering. If we will only take 
this as our motto and hold on, and if we don't see any fruit the next 
day or the next month, let us not be discouraged; but if we hold 
right on to the promise, we can reach the hardest heart in Boston. 

I remember, fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I first commenced to 
work for the Lord, a man from Boston was in Chicago, and asked 
me to look after a certain man who had two boys and two girls, 
whom he would not allow to attend Sunday-school. I found the man 
lived in a drinking saloon, and he was behind the bar when I went 
in; and after telling him what I wanted, he said he would rather 
have his sons drunkards and his daughters harlots than to become 
Christians. The second time I went, he ordered me out; and I 
thought I would try him the third time. It looked pretty dark and 
discouraging to have a man talking that bitter. I went back the 
third time, and happened to catch him in a little better humor; and 
he agreed to read the New Testament if I would read Paine's Age 
of Reason; but he had the best of the bargain. One Saturday, I was 
urging him to go to church; and he agreed to invite some of his 
friends to his saloon to hear me preach, if I would promise to let him 
and his friends also talk. I agreed to his proposal, and took a little 
boy with me whom God had taught to pray; but he was not in the 
saloon when I got there. His wife told me where he was; and I 
found they had met in one of the neighbor's parlors, the saloon being 
too small, and there were atheists, deists, and infidels of all sorts. It 
was arranged that the infidels should have forty-five minutes and 
I was to close in fifteen minutes. The moment I went in they 
began to attack me and ask questions; but I would not answer 



CHRISTIANS NOT TO FAINT. 617 

them and held them to the arrangement that I was to talk for fif- 
teen minutes, when they were through. The result was, none of 
them could agree. Some said there was such a man as Christ, and 
others said there was not; and before the forty-five minutes were up 
I thought they would get to blows. When the time was up I said, 
M We always open our meetings with prayer. Let us pray." After 
I got through praying, that little boy began to pray; I wish you 
could hear him pray. He prayed God to have mercy upon those 
men who had been talking against his beloved Son. His voice 
sounded more like the voice of an angel than a human voice. Af- 
ter he got through praying, I got up to speak; there were not many 
dry eyes in the house, some went out of one door and some out of 
another. The old man I had been after for months came up to me 
and said, "You can have my children at the Sunday-school;" and 
next Sunday they were there. After they had been there a few 
months, one day I was leading the noon prayer meeting, and the 
oldest boy came up to the platform and asked the people to pray for 
his father, for he wanted to become a Christian. God heard their 
prayers and answered them; and in all my acquaintance, I didn't 
know a man in Chicago more hopeless than that man. I believe if 
we will lay ourselves out to reach these men, there is not a man in 
all Boston but that can be reached. I didn't care who and what he 
is, if we only go after them in the name of the Master. They may 
curse us at first; but it will not be long before they will pray for us 
and bless us, and we shall win their hard hearts to the Savior. "We 
shall reap if we faint not." I don't have a warmer friend in Chicago 
than that old man; he was true to me until he passed away. And 
there isn't an infidel in this city we cannot reach, if we are true and 
faithful. Of course they abuse me for what I say; I never speak 
about the conversions of infidels but I receive fifteen or twenty letters 
telling me it is a falsehood, that there are no infidels converted. 
But I thank God he keeps converting them. Infidelity don't satisfy 
them, and what they want is Christ to satisfy them; and so let us 
hold right on to this text, that "We shall reap if we faint not." 

When 1 was in London, in 1872, I got acquainted with one of the 
most remarkable men I ever met. He was a young man, brought 
up in the best of society, as the world calls it, his father was one of 
the knights and moved in what the world calls "the upper circles;" 
and this young man was intimately acquainted with the royal fami- 
ly. But when he was converted, although a young man of great 
wealth, he went down into the Seven Dials, which is the same as go- 
ing down into the North End of Boston, and getting into the dark- 
est lane and the darkest corner there. He would go into these 
streets at midnight, and at two or three o'clock in the morning, and 
find boys that had no homes and were sleeping on the sidewalks, and 
on barrels, and on stairs, and wherever he could find them, and give 



018 CHRISTIANS NOT TO FAINT. 

them shelter; and he hired a place at his own expense and gave 
them a supper, and slept with them, leaving his beautiful mansion 
and palace. And seven nights in the week, after he was converted, 
you might see that young man going down into the very borders of 
hell; and right along, for eight or nine years, he has been every 
night in the week among those abandoned people, trying to lift them 
up. In 1872, he had eighty-five boys in Canada that had been con- 
verted; and he was corresponding with them, and all of them were 
doing well. When I went to London the last time, it was my priv- 
ilege to go to his house. He had been married, and his wife told 
me he gives five nights out of the week to that work down in the 
Seven Dials; he has now put up a building which cost in the neigh- 
borhood of from $50,000 to $75,000; and he not only spends his 
money, but his time. There are a great many people willing to help 
the Lord in a patronizing way, and give their money to other men 
to do the work, but this man was willing to work right among them; 
and I don't know of a man in all my acquaintance that has been so 
blessed as that young man. I tell this to encourage some of you. 

You need not be rich in order to work for God. I know of a 
young lady who was converted a few years ago, and the first thing- 
she said was, " What can I do?" I told her that the first thing I did 
was to get hold of some ragged boys and induce them to attend the 
Sunday-school. Three months after that she had twenty- six little 
boys, that she had picked up in the streets, and was trying to teach 
them the way to the kingdom of God; and she has been wonderfully 
blessed since. 

Let the young converts find some work to do. Go into the vine- 
yard and you will be wonderfully blessed. It says in John 15th, 4th 
and 5th: ''Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit 
of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide 
in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me 
and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye 
can do nothing." Now we find that there are some Christians that 
are fruitful; and then there are those that he has to prune, and that 
makes them more faithful. But these that abide in grace, they bring 
forth much fruit; the pruning is not necessary. There are three 
kinds of Christians: those who bring forth fruit; those who are more 
fruitful; and those who bring forth much fruit, and the latter just 
abide in grace. He is their life, their peace, their everything. They 
are not going into the world after their comfort; but they just go to 
Christ, and in that way they get strength and power to serve him. If 
we want to be fruitful and bring forth a hundred-fold, let us aim to 
be fruit-bearing Christians. 

There was a man came into the inquiry-room last week; and after 
he had seemingly accepted Christ, I asked him what first impressed 
him, and he said that some lady handed him a card about the character 



CHRISTIANS NOT TO FAINT. 619 

of the meeting, and he took out of his pocket-book a little card, of 
which was printed, " Gospel meetings, conducted by Messrs. Moody 
and Sankey." AncLon it were a few passages of Scripture, one on 
which was, "A certain man had two sons;" and the man said he was 
that son that had wandered away. I knew we hadn't had those 
cards printed; and I made inquiry and found that a Christian young 
man, a printer, had printed fifteen-thousand of them at his own ex- 
pense, and circulated them at the meetings. I wish we had fifteen- 
thousand just such workers in Boston as that. Cannot we stir up 
your young men to do something? Blessed privilege! As I said 
before, Boston people are grand people to listen; I never had better 
people in my life. It is a most remarkable audience, to see people 
come out in a stormy morning like this. I think this is one of the 
most extraordinary assemblies we have ever had. You are good for 
hearers; I wish we could get you to be doers of the word. In James 
it says: " But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiv- 
ing yourselves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, 
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he 
beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth 
what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect 
law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hear- 
er, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If 
any man among you seems to be religious, and bridleth not his 
tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To 
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep him- 
self unspotted from the world." 

If we are going to have pure religion, we have got to be some- 
thing besides hearers of the Word of God: we have got to be doers. 
And if I can only say something this morning, to stir up these thou- 
sands of Christians here to go out and commence this very day to be 
doers of the word as well as hearers, don't you see how the influence 
of this meeting would spread all through Boston, and how many 
hundreds would feel its influence before night, and how many would 
be won to Christ. Instead of having an inquiry-meeting in Mr. 
Gordon's church, we would have an inquiry meeting in every house 
in Boston. I don't know of anything which impressed me so in 
England as to see the people come to the meetings with their Bibles; 
and they used to see if the services were according to the Word of 
God; and they were growing in grace all the time. And instead of, 
when the meetings were over, trying to get out, and even before the 
benediction is pronounced, as they do here, they were all ready for 
work; and instead of rushing out, they would stay to the second 
meeting and work for the Lord. I know of some workers in Boston 
already, who have got a list as long as my arm of men and women 
they have led to God in the past few months since we have been la- 



620 CHARACTER OF JACOB. 

boring here; and if they keep on while we are here, when we leave 
there will be a great army led to Christ by them. And instead of 
having a few of these people, we should have thousands of them. 
Blessed privilege, to lead a soul out of darkness into light! I wish 
I had time to read some other verses which I would like to call your 
attention to, about working in the vineyard; but as ten o'clock has 
struck, 1 will close. 



CHARACTER OF JACOB. 

u And Jacob vowed a row saying, If God will be with me in this way that I go, and will 
give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in 
peace, then shall the Lord be my God." Genesis 28: 20, 21. 

We have for our subject to-day, Jacob. There was a time when 
I used to be troubled a good deal about these Bible characters. I 
used to think that, because they were saints, everything they did 
was right; and I could not understand just how it was that God 
would permit them to do such things and not be punished. Jacob 
was one of those characters I used to stumble over. But since I 
have got a little better acquainted with my Bible, I find that these 
characters are given to us as examples to warn us. If they were all 
like Joseph and Joshua, and Daniel, and Jeremiah, and John 
the Baptist, and a few of those characters that never tripped 
and fell, that never deviated a hair's breadth, I think it would dis- 
courage a good many of us. But when we come to a character like 
Jacob, and we find that God had grace enough to save him, I think 
there is hope enough for almost any of us; for, by nature, he was as 
bad a character as you will find. By nature, he was very treacherous 
and deceitful. Jacob means a planner, and a deceiver. He started 
wrong; altogether different from the way Daniel did. He started 
with a lie in his mouth. I do not know that the ladies like to have 
me say it, but I think his mother was as much to blame as he was; 
for she told him to tell a lie to his father. And the object of taking 
up a character like this is not to look at the failings of Jacob, while 
we forget our own. Though he was a grandson of Abraham, he, is 
twin brother to most of us. Wherever you go, you find this 
man's character brought out in a great many men. He could trust 
God just about as far as he could see him, and no farther. He was 



CHAEACTEE OF JACOB. 621 

one of those men that are willing to trust God, if they know how it 
is coming' out. 

Let us draw a contrast between Jacob and Joseph. Joseph could 
trust God in the dark; he was willing to walk with God anywhere, 
and believe that God was going to bring everything out right. But 
Jacob wanted to see how it was coming out. Rebekah laid the plan 
to keep Jacob at home. It is the old story over again. Esau was 
Isaac's favorite, and Jacob Rebekah's; and when there is favoritism 
in the old home, there is always trouble. When Rebekah began to 
plan to keep her son at home, she just defeated the object she 
wanted to bring about; for Jacob left home, and she never set eyes 
on him again. Esau drove him off. Let us just see him as he starts 
away from home. In that 27th chapter of Genesis, 46th verse, we 
find what it says about Rebekah: "And Rebekah said to Isaac, I 
am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob 
take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the 
daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?" 

Life began to be a burden to her; and now she wanted Isaac to 
bless Jacob and send him off, in order to save his life, because it had 
come to her that Esau was planning to kill his brother. So Jacob 
started away, without asking his father to forgive him for his lie to 
him. Yet God met him, for it says in Genesis, 28th chapter: " And 
Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And 
he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because 
the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place and put 
them for his pillow, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he 
dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it 
reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and de- 
scending on it. And behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am 
the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land 
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy 
seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad 
to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and 
in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 
And behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither 
thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not 
leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." 
Just straight from the throne God says, "I will give it to thee." 
See how plain that is. There are a great many of God's promises 
that are conditional, but others are without any condition. Here is 
God shouting down from the top of that ladder what he will do for 
him. There is no condition about it; God says I will do this. " And 
Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in 
this place, and I knew it not." Undoubtedly he had been told a 
good deal about the God of Abraham. His grandfather, probably, 
had him on his knee a good many times, and told him of God, so 



G22 CHARACTER OF JACOB, 

that God was really no stranger to him. He had heard about him; 
and now he says: the Lord is in this place. "And he was afraid 
and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house 
of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in 
the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set 
it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called 
the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city was called 
Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying if God will be 
with me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in 
peace, then shall the Lord be my God." 

There is a bargain. You see Jacob is always trying to make a 
bargain. After God had shouted down what he would do for him, 
he said: "If the Lord will give me enough to eat and drink and bring 
me back to the father's house, he will be my God." Instead of 
praising God for what he had offered him, he gets up with that low 
idea of God. Then he went to Haran; and we find him in Haran 
driving sharp bargains with his Uncle Laban, and Laban is beating 
him every time. When a man has met the God of Grace, he has no 
chance to cope with the world in worldly things. After Jacob has 
met God, what does he want in the world driving sharp 
bargains? I think more of his uncle than I do of him. His uncle 
was a good deal more honorable than Jacob. He went to that old, 
blind father and lied to him; and after he goes to Haran, he is paid 
back in his own coin. He has to work seven years more to get 
Rachel, and his wages were changed ten times. We do not hear 
anything about the vow he made; but there he is, driving sharp bar- 
gains and trying to get rich. 

But God is going to fulfill his promise. And now we find here in 
the 31st chapter and 13th verse that God came, and he says: " I am 
the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou 
vowedst a vow unto me; now arise, get thee out from this land and 
return unto the land of thy kindred." Now instead of Jacob going 
out like a man, he just watched his chance and stole away like a 
thief. We find that his father-in-law came after him; and if God 
had not appeared to him, I don't know but he would have taken the 
life of Jacob. He might have said that God had called him, and 
have gone like a man; but instead, he stole away. He was always 
planning; he could not let God plan for him. But now he hears 
that Esau is coming out against him, and he is troubled. He could 
not trust God; he could not believe in his Lord. He wanted to see 
how it was coming out; and then he began to plan again. He di- 
vided his herd, and sent some ahead, so that he could keep in the 
rear. How mean, how cowardly. Then he is left alone with God, 
and there he wrestles with God. It says in the 32d chapter of Gen- 
esis, 24th verse: "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a 



CHARACTER OF JACOB. 623 

man with him until the breaking of the day." We hear that quoted 
a good deal. We hear a good deal about the wrestling Jacob; and 
we forget that there was a man wrestling with him. We cannot 
force God to give us his blessings. God wants us to receive, and 
we are not willing to receive at his hands. The trouble was with 
Jacob, not with God; for God had come for the purpose of blessing 
him. "And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he 
touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh 
was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, 
for the day breaketh; and he said, I will not let thee go except thou 
bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? and he said, 
Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but 
Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and 
hast prevailed. 

" And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name; 
and he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And 
he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Pe- 
niel ; for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." 

Now people say that he did prevail when he wrestled. I do not 
think that a man can wrestle much with his thigh out of joint. His 
power was gone, and when he was weak, he prevailed with God. He 
got to the end of his own strength, and all he could do was to plead 
for a blessing; and then he got it. When we are weak we are strong 
with God. It is when we get to the end of the flesh, and are weak 
and hold on to God, then it is that we have power with him. The 
Lord blessed him there; and he prevailed when he was weak, and 
when his strength was gone 

But now we turn over into the 33d chapter, and we find him again. 
Instead of going to Bethel, we find him down at Shechem, and he 
built there an altar and put his own name on it; but I don't think 
God ever met him there. In the 20th verse, it says: "And he 
erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel." A high-sound- 
ing name, wasn't it? The name that God had given to him. There 
is a good deal of attaching our name to the Lord's work—" my 
church," "my prayer meeting," "my Sunday-school," and my this 
and my that, instead of keeping ourselves out of sight and giving 
God all the glory. But the Lord never met him there at Shechem; 
and he fell into sin and his family into disgrace; and at last the God 
of Bethel came again. "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to 
Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar unto God, that ap- 
peared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy 
brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were 
with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be 
clean, and change your garments." You see that he had got an 
altar down there, and he had got strange gods. There are a great 
many men in Boston who ride two horses; they pretend to worship 



624 CHAEACTER OF JACOB. 

the God of heaven, but they worship the god of this world. You 
cannot worship God and mammon. When God came to Shechem, 
what did he find? He found Jacob had these strange gods; and he 
told him to arise and go to Bethel, and he would bless him. God 
was not going to bless him down there, with all his strange gods; 
and when we get away from our idols and they are buried out of 
sight, then we have power with God. Jacob said: "And let us 
arise and go up to Bethel, and I will make there an altar unto God, 
who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in th a - 
way which I went." Now, let your minds go back, friends, you that 
have wandered from God and have got down at Shechem. The 
reason the church has got no more power is, because it has gone 
away down to Shechem. Many of us have wandered and gone astray. 
Let us arise and go up to Bethel, and get back to the house of God, 
so that he can bless us. "And they gave unto J<*cob all the strange 
gods which were in their hands, and all their ear-rings which were in 
their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which has of She- 
chem." 

He ought to have burned them, or smashed them to pieces; but 
he hid them under an oak. It is a good thing when we get the idols 
buried. I wish we could dig a grave in Boston deep enough to 
bury all the idols in this city. We would then see how soon God 
would bless us. We make an idol of money, of reputation, of pleas- 
ure, of friends. We have a great many idols that have come into 
our hearts; and the God of heaven is not there, and cannot bless us 
on account of these idols. See what happened when they buried 
these idols: "And they journeyed; and the terror of God was upon 
the cities that were round about them; and they did not pursue after 
the sons of Jacob." So that the terror of the Lord fell upon the na- 
tions round about them. Jacob had power then, because he was 
right with God and had put away his idols; and the terror of God 
fell upon the nations round about them. " So Jacob came to Luz, 
which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people 
that were with him. And he built there an» altar, and called the 
place El-beth-el; because there God appeared unto him when he 
fled from the face of his brother." 

In the 13th verse we find that " God went up from him in the 
place where he talked with him;" and in the 16th verse, that Jacob 
journeyed from Bethel, left it, would not stay there. In the open- 
ing of that chapter, " God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel 
and dwell there; and make there an altar unto God." Affliction 
came upon him, because he would not obey God and dwell at Bethel; 
and the next thing we hear that Rachel died. He then sends Jo- 
seph down to Shechem to see the boys that are looking after the 
sheep. I don't know but they had gone there to dig up those idols 
that were buried under the oak. Jacob has got his trouble again; 



CHARACTER OF JACOB. 625 

his boys came back with a lie upon their lips. "Be net deceived; 
God is not mocked." You lie to your parents and your children will 
lie to you. The reaping time will come. Twenty or thirty years 
had rolled away; and now his own boys come back and say that his 
favorite son, the idol of his heart, the one he loved — he had fallen 
into the same sin that Rebekah and Isaac committed; he loved Jo- 
seph and Benjamin more than the rest of his sons, and that brought 
jealousy into that home and family, and now the fires of jealousy are 
kindled in the hearts of these brothers; and they begin to plan how 
they can put that favorite son out of the way. They wanted to 
murder him; they had murder in their hearts; and they would have 
killed him, if God hadn't overruled them. They cast him into the 
pit, and it was ordered by God that he should be brought up out of 
the pit and sold into slavery in Egypt; and the old man mourned 
for that boy for twenty long years. It was a good deal more than 
he sowed; the reaping time had come; and you will find, when they 
told him that Joseph was dead, they could not comfort him. His 
sons and daughters gathered round him; but he would not be com- 
forted. He says, " I will go down to my grave mourning for that 
boy. You can see the old man, as he lay upon his bed at night; he 
dreams of that boy being torn into pieces by wild beasts; you can 
hear his voice haunting him, and for twenty long years he mourned 
over him as dead. 

When they came back from Egypt, and reported that the gov- 
ernor of Egypt had treated them roughly, and said that they could 
not get any more corn until they brought down Benjamin, and he 
had already taken Simeon and thrown him into prison, the old man 
cried: "Joseph is not; Simeon is not; and now you take Benjamin 
from me. All these things are against me." He had a stormy 
voice, hadn't he? The man that cannot walk by faith always has 
trouble. The man that is all the time planning, and will not let 
God plan for him, always has a stormy journey, and never knows 
what true peace and comfort is. 

And in the 47th chapter, when he gets down into Egypt 
himself, what a testimony that was to take down to the king of 
Egypt; it would not get many converts for his God. The Egyptians 
would say: "If that is your testimony about your religion, we don't 
want it; we would rather have the god of the Egyptians, than to 
have such a God as you have." We find it says in the 47th chapter 
and the 9th verse: "And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the 
years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and 
evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained 
unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of 
their pilgrimage." Queer testimony to take down to the heathen 
king! He would not win a great many souls to Christ with it. And 
these Christians who are always walking by sight never lead any to 
40 



626 CHARACTER OF JACOB. 

the cross of Christ; they are a great hindrance to the church to-dav* 
If we take Christ with us, and believe in his word, our testimony 
will be worth something. When we do, the Son of God has been 
with us all the time; he has blessed us, and the light has been shining 
brighter and brighter along the pathway to heaven. 

Let us keep this in mind, that although Jacob had all these fail- 
ings, God was with him and blessed him, and condescended to call 
himself the God of Jacob, the God of Israel; and this all magnifies 
grace. There may be a man here to-day who has got a mean, 
treacherous disposition. Bring it to God; he has got grace enough 
to give you victory; he gave Jacob victory. We find the old man 
passing away in peace, although in exile in Egypt; and he might 
have died in his own land with his family around him; and his end 
might have been glorious like that of Joshua in Timnath-serah, if he 
had only been willing to walk by faith. But, no, he took himself 
out of God's sight and planned all the time ; and if he had a castle, 
you might have written over every door, " Doubting Castle." There 
was the trouble with Esau, the trouble with his father-in-law, and 
from his natural life up, because he would not take God by faith and 
trust him. 

Oh, may God help us to learn a lesson from Jacob; and may we 
know what it is to put ourselves wholly in God's hands, and let God 
plan for us. A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his know- 
ing it. The very hairs of our heads are numbered, for our heavenly 
Father knows we have need of these things. God will take care of 
us if we will put our trust in him. Let us put our trust in God, and 
not keep planning all the time to see how it is going to come out. 



CHARACTER OF JOSHUA. 

"There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life; as I was 
with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of 
a good courage." Joshua 1 : 5, 6. 

You that were here last Thursday afternoon, remember that I was 
talking about the life and character of Jacob. This morning I will 
talk about Joshua, and draw a contrast between the two. Jacob 
was one of those characters that wanted to walk by sight altogether; 
he wanted to reason out everything, like a great many men now-a- 
days. Joshua was the man that walked by faith; and you will find 
the key of his character in three words, courage, obedience and faith ; 
and he dared not be in the minority. There are very few men at 
the present time that like to be in the minority; they always want 
to be in the majority; they want to go with the crowd. But when 
a man has laid hold of the divine nature of God, has become a par- 
taker of the divine nature, he is willing then to go against the 
current of the world. 

Where Joshua met the God of Israel first, we are not told. We 
don't catch a glimpse of him until he is about forty years old. The 
first sight we get of Joshua was as he came up out of Egypt. We 
are told, after Moses had struck that rock in Horeb, and the children 
of Israel had drank the water which came out of that rock — and 
that was typical of Christ, because Paul says in Corinthians " that 
rock was Christ"; the next thing that happened after that, Amalek 
came out to fight them; but they had got a draught of the living 
water; and they were able to meet Amalek and overcome him. That 
is a type of the world; and Joshua goes out to take charge of the 
armies, and that is the first glimpse we have of him. His first bat- 
tle was successful, and his last was successful. He never knew what 
defeat was, because he believed in the Lord God of heaven. Moses 
went up into the mountain to pray, and while he was praying, 
Joshua was down there fighting Amalek; and while Moses's hands 
were up Israel prevailed, and Amalek was defeated, and Joshua had 
prevailed. 

As I said the other day, when I was talking about Joshua, there 
is only one thing on record against him; and that is, he was opposed to 
lay preaching. He didn't like the idea of Eldad and Medad prophesy- 
ing in the oamp;they didn't belong to the regular apostolic crowd, 
those that were set apart for the purpose; and Moses rebuked him, 
627 



628 CHARACTER OF JOSHUA. 

and told him all God's people were prophets. And that is what we 
want in this city; every man that has heard the voice of God say- 
ing, " Come," let him take up that cry and extend it. " Let him 
that heareth say, Come." If you have heard, let others come. But 
after Moses rebuked him, we never hear of his complaining any more 
about Eldad and Medad. It is the only thing on record against him. 
The next we hear of him is in connection with those twelve spies. 
That I spoke of the first Sunday I was here, and will pass over that. 
You remember he came back, and was one of the only two of the 
twelve that dared to bring in a minority report. But now the forty 
years' wilderness journey is over; and all these forty years you can- 
not find any place where Caleb or Joshua ever murmured, where 
they ever complained; they were not that kind. And whenever 
you find a man or a woman that is successful in God's service, you 
will never hear them complaining or whining; you will never hear 
them murmuring; they are looking on the bright side all the while; 
they are of good courage; and then it is the Lord God blesses them. 
And now as I said, the forty years' wilderness journey is over, and 
Moses is about to leave. And if you never read that farewell ad- 
dress of Moses — you will find it in the last few chapters of Deuter- 
onomy — I would advise you to read it to-day. You are reading a 
great many printed sermons now-a-days; suppose you read this ser- 
mon of Moses. There is more truth in that sermon than in fifteen 
hundred of the sermons now-a-days. Let me just give you a few 
verses: "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O 
earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, 
my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender 
herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Because I will publish 
the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is 
the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God 
of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. When the Most 
High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the 
sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the 
number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his peo- 
ple; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert 
land and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he in- 
structed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Why, there are 
two or three sermons in one verse. Just see what the Lord did; the 
Lord did it all. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her 
young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, bearing them on 
her wings, so the Lord above did lead him, and there was no 
strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the 
earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him 
to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." And 
so he went on and finished his sermon. And now God called him 
off into Mount Nebo, and showed him that land which he could not 



CHAEACTEE OF JOSHUA. b'Z\) 

go over to possess; lie showed him the land from Dan to Beersheba, 
and pointed out the portions of land which each tribe was to have; 
and then, some one said, God kissed away his soul and buried him. 
The greatest tribute ever paid to mortal man was paid to Moses, 
and he was buried by the Almighty himself. 

Joshua was now to take charge of the armies of God. And the word 
of the Lord came to Joshua saying: " Moses my servant is dead; now 
therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto 
the land which 1 do give to them, even to the children of Israel." 
If Joshua had been like a great many of us, now-a-days, he would 
have said: " Lord, I don't know how I am going to take this people 
over Jordan; it is just harvest-time; all the banks are overflowed. 
Hadn't we better wait a few weeks, until we can go over at some 
place and ford it? How am I to get these three million people 
over?" But Joshua had got the word from God; and the God that 
brought them through the Red Sea and throuo-h the wilderness 
could take them oyer Jordan. The Lord gave orders, that was 
enough; he got his word and he brings them to Jordan. Their faith 
must be tried. He will not have a people that he has not tried. He 
had kept them in the wilderness forty years, and now he brings them 
in sight of Jordan. If he had brought them up there forty years 
before, what murmuring there would have been! "You might as 
well have let us die down in Egypt, we cannot get across this river; 
and when the enemy sees us, if we get a bridge or a pontoon across, 
they will shoot us, and we will be defeated and slain on the banks 
of the Jordan; we had better have died in Egypt; we had better 
turn round and go back." That would have been their cry forty 
years before; but now they have got faith, and are in sight of Jor- 
dan, and there isn't a word of complaint. 

Joshua tells the priests to take the ark, and they were to be about 
two thousand cubits ahead of the people, so that the people could 
see them ; and they were to walk right down to the Jordan, and the 
moment the soles of their feet touched the water the waters were 
to be cut off. There is faith for you! These very men, without any 
questioning, take up the ark of God. God is with them and calls 
them across Jordan, and is not going to leave them; and the mo- 
ment their feet touched the water the waters are cut off, and they 
pass to the middle of the stream and put down the ark; that ark rep- 
resented the Almighty God of Israel. He was in the ark and with 
the ark and right there in the midst of death (for Jordan means death 
and judgment), right in the middle of the stream was the Almighty, 
and he held that river in the hollow of his hand; and now the people 
sweep beyond the ark, three millions of them; you can hear their 
solemn tread. Not a word was said as through death and judgment 
they go; Joshua is leading them up on to resurrection ground, and 
into the promised land. And after they all got over, twelve men, 



630 CHARACTER OF JOSHUA. 

one from each tribe, took each a stone, and set them up as a sign, to 
tell the story of how God brought them over that stream into the 
promised land. 

Instead of leaving at once for Jericho, they stopped to keep the 
Passover. They were in no hurry, and were willing to wait and 
worship God. The Passover lamb is killed, and they keep the Pass- 
over; and after they have worshiped, they start for Jerioho. 

Jericho was shut up. Undoubtedly they had heard what great 
things the Lord had done for the children of Israel; they had got no 
such God in Jericho. Joshua walks round the walls of Jericho, to 
see how he is going to take the city, and sees a man standing right 
in front of him, with a drawn sword over him. The Lord said, "No 
man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life." I 
suppose that is the first time that came into Joshua's mind; and he 
stepped right up to him and said, " Art thou for us, or for our adver- 
saries?" "No, I am captain of the Lord's host, and come to lead 
you to victory." Joshua fell on his face, and God talked to him. It 
is when men are on their faces, that God talks with them. There 
are so few willing to humble themselves that God may talk with 
them and give them the blessings from heaven. How much sport 
they would have made in Jericho; and if there had been a Jericho 
Herald, it would have ridiculed taking the city in the way proposed. 
Seven priests were to go in front of the ark and blow seven rams' 
horns. This is very absurd. I think the people of Boston would 
have wanted silver or golden trumpets. The idea of our friend Dr. 
Brooks and Dr. Pentecost and Dr. Webb, and the Catholic Bishop, 
and the Episcopal Bishop, and the other potentates of the church 
blowing rams' horns. It would touch our pride. Give them some 
beautiful trumpets; don't let them go round the city blowing rams' 
horns. But that is what God told them to do. Those seven priests 
were to go in front of the ark and blow rams' horns; and then there 
were 600,000 footmen that followed the ark round the walls of Jeri- 
cho. Bear in mind, Jericho was to be taken by faith. So they 
went round for six mornings, and the seventh morning comes; they 
are up very early, perhaps at daybreak, and the whole city of Jeri- 
cho is startled. They get up earlier than usual, they can hear the 
rams' horns blowing; and instead of going into camp after the first 
circuit of the city, they go round the second, and the third, and the 
fourth, and the fifth time; and the people begin to get onto the walls 
of the city and look down on them. What does this mean? They 
have gone round the fifth time; now they go round the sixth time; 
not a word is spoken. Now they have got round the seventh time; 
and a shout went up from the 600,000 men. Joshua had given the 
word, and the walls came tumbling down; and they went up and 
took that city, and took it by faith, and every man and woman per- 
ished in that city. God gave the orders and they just obeyed. 



CHARACTER OF JOSHUA. 631 

My friends, the lesson we want to learn is obedience to God. If 
some Boston men had been there, they would have advised taking 
the city some other way. The Lord said, " Do it," and Joshua did 
it; and he was successful. 

Now they moved to Ai, and they told Joshua they only wanted 
a few men to take that place; but they were repulsed; and Joshua 
fell on his face and cried to God, to find out what the difficulties 
were. He knew the sin was with the people. And when the 
Ohurch of God does not advance, it is not because God has failed, 
but because there is something wrong with us. There was treach- 
ery in the camp. God told them not to touch one solitary thing in 
Jericho; but Achan coveted a Babylonish garment, or a nice dress 
for his wife, and a wedge of gold. God hates the sin of covetous- 
ness; he has punished it in all ages; and when that sin was found 
out and put away, they moved on to Ai. There was no trouble then, 
and the men of Ai soon fell; they could not stand before the Lord. 

Then we are told Joshua comes to Mount Ebal and the law of 
God is read to them (see Joshua 8: 31st to 35th verses). Thank 
God for such a man as Joshua. That is the kind of men we want 
now-a-days. Men have been cutting and slashing at the Bible, so 
that they haven't got anything left now. But Joshua just gave 
them the whole Word; it was all read. And now he is ready to 
move on. The law had been read; they had worshiped their God; 
and, undoubtedly, the nations all through that land heard of that 
solemn assembly on those two mountain sides, and that the law of 
God had been read. Now they are ready to move on again; and 
some startling news reaches Joshua that there is a confederacy 
formed, and instead of meeting one king at a time he is to meet five 
of the leading kings of the country; and they were coming from the 
mountains and from the valleys with their giants, to overwhelm him. 
I see the old warrior; he don't tremble at all; he had got the Word 
of God: "Joshua, be of good courage, no man shall be able to stand 
up before thee all the days of thy life;" and he routed the armies of 
the kings; and the day was not quite long enough, so he commanded 
the sun and moon to stand still and had two days in one, and there 
was none of them left together. He found those five kings hid away 
in a cave. He overcame thirty-one kings and killed them. He 
overcame them by faith. 

Some men say, "What right had he to go over and take that 
land?" The Word of God tells us. (See Deuteronomy 9, 4th to 6th 
verses.) God didn't want to have them go in on account of their self- 
righteousness; God hates that, but it was on account of the wicked- 
ness of the inhabitants. Joshua then divides up the land among 
them, taking the poorest part for himself, so that he might be near 
the ark, near Shiloh. There comes out another trait of his character. 



632 CHARACTER OF JOSHUA. 

There he died. He lived to the ripe age of 110; and all these years 
not one solitary man was able to stand before him. 

And see the contrast between his dying testimony and that of Ja- 
cob down in Egypt! "Few and evil have been my days" — had a 
pretty stormy voyage. There is a man that walked by sight. Now 
look, and see this old warrior going to rest. He is not going to die 
like an infidel, or an atheist. He knows in whom he believes, and 
he sent for all Israel; and they gathered at Shiloh, to hear the old 
prophet and patriarch and that mighty man of God speak. What 
does he say? What is his dying testimony? How we linger about 
to catch what our dying friends say; how anxious we are to catch 
their last words and utterances. Now what are the last words of 
this man, who has tried God and proved him, and who knew God? 
This is it: "Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth; 
and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one 
thing hath failed." God has kept his word, fulfilled his promise, 
made his word good: "not one thing hath failed." What a glorious 
dying testimony! What a beautiful sunset! Look at the old war- 
rior sinking away, like the sun going down on a summer evening 
full of beauty. There the old man is dying, and is leaving that tes- 
timony behind him. It has lived all these years. How we like to 
go back to it! Moses laid away in the mountains by God; Aaron 
also buried in the mountains by God; and Miriam, the sister of 
Aaron, had died in a foreign land; and now in sight of the celestial 
city which Abraham caught sight of, this is Joshua's dying testimo- 
ny: "And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth; 
and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one 
thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God 
spake concerning you." 

My friends, let us take God at his word; let us try his word and 
prove him, and we will find that God is true. Ah, these men that 
are trying to destroy our confidence in the Word of God, by telling 
us that God does not keep his word, are deceiving us. It is not 
true. Any man that has tried these promises has found them to be 
"yea and nay;" he has found them to be true. Let us pray to the 
God of Joshua. 



SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD. 

"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Amos 8: 3. 

Our subject to-day is, "Walking with God, or Separating from 
the World." Of course, this address is to those that have been re- 
deemed by the precious blood of Christ; for no man has a desire to 
walk with God until he is saved. For six thousand years, since Adam 
fell out of communion with God, God has been trying to win back 
the sons and daughters of Adam into communion with himself. When 
Adam was innocent of sin, he could walk with God; but the mo- 
ment he fell, he ran away and hid himself and was out of commun- 
ion with God. When men are going away from God they do not 
desire to walk with him; but after we have become his children, the 
sweetest lesson we can learn is how to walk with him in constant fel- 
lowship, how to be in communion with him all the while. God came 
down and visited man. He visited Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses; 
but he did not walk with man until after the flood. Then he took 
the children of Israel and walked with them, and would have walked 
with them forever as a nation; but they said that they wanted a king 
like the other nations around them, and God granted their request. 

Now if nations will not walk with God, it is the privilege of in- 
dividuals to do so; and each one of us in this house can be brought 
into communion with God, and walk with him the rest of our days, 
if we will. It says in Peter, 2d chapter, at the 20th verse: " For 
what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take 
it patiently? but if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it pa- 
tiently, this is acceptable with God, For even hereunto were ye 
called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, 
that ye should follow in his steps." 

I am told by men that have been in the Indian country that very 
often you will find a trail over a mountain, and you will find only 
one footprint, as if but one man had trod that path; and I am told 
that the chief goes on and the tribe follow, and they put their feet 
into his footprints. Our chief has gone on before us, and left us an 
example. We are to follow in his footsteps; and we would have 
continual blessing if we did not go out of the path; and the trouble 
is that most of us think our way is better than his, and are not will- 
ing to follow in his footsteps. It says in the 2Gth chapter of Leviti- 
cus^ 2d and3d and 4th verses: " Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reve- 
633 



634 SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD. 

rence my sanctuary; I am the Lord. If ye walk in my statutes, 
and keep my commandments, and do them: Then I will give you rain 
in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of 
the field shall yield their fruit." 

Now if you will read the history of that nation, you will find that 
as long as they kept the law they prospered. God gave them the 
rain in season, and God caused their land to bring forth abundance; 
but when they turned away from him and would not reverence his 
law, then they brought calamity upon themselves, and they were 
taken into bondage and servitude. Nebuchadnezzar took them into 
bondage and kept them for seventy years, because they would not 
reverence the law. Now it says in that same chapter, 12th verse: 
"And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall 
be my people." He said, I will come down among you, and you 
shall be my people and I shall be your God. And what nation had 
a God like that? What nation was blessed like that nation, when 
God was walking with them? The shout of the King was heard in 
the time of battle. God sent legions of angels to help them if they 
put their trust in him. But then he warns them in the 27th verse: 
" And if ye will not for all this harken unto me, but walk contrary 
unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even 
I, will chastise you seven times for your sins." 

What causes so much misery now in the city of Boston? It is be- 
cause men are walking contrary to God. There is no peace for the 
wicked. You may try to find it, but you cannot away from God. 
If men will just walk in God's law, reverence God's sanctuary, and 
obey God, they will have peace; they will be blessed as in olden 
time. God has not changed; he is the same now as he always was. 
But men are walking contrary to God, and that is the trouble. Now 
we find here, that in the days of Joshua no man was able to stand 
before him all the days of his life, because he studied the Word of 
God and meditated upon it day and night; he observed the whole 
law, not merely a part of it, and the result was that he was prosper- 
ous. In the 22d chapter, we find there he gave orders to those he 
left to take his place after he was gone: "But take diligent heed 
to do the commandment and the law, which Moses, the servant of 
the Lord, charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in 
all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, 
and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. So 
Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went into their 
tents." 

We are told that they did not depart from the Lord in the days of 
Joshua and the Judges. He had such influence over those Judges 
that he kept the children of Israel from departing from the Lord. 
But a few hundred years after, they turned away. It is only rain 
that you hear, my friends; let us pray that the rain of God's blessing 



SEPARATION" FROM THE WORLD. 635 

may come upon us, that we may all be brought into communion 
with God. As he is giving the earth its showers, let us pray that 
he will shower blessings upon each one of us to-day. 

If you will turn to the 6th chapter of Jeremiah, 16th verse, you 
will find what Israel did: " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the 
way, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and 
walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But, they said, 
We will not walk therein." 

We will not do any such thing, they say; that law of Moses is very 
good for those heathen coming out of Egypt, but we have scientific 
men and we know more than Moses and Caleb. It was very good 
in those dark, heathen days, but we have grown wiser; we have out- 
grown the law of God." So the king turned away, and the whole 
nation turned away with him. So Jeremiah wept over them, and 
the Lord gave him this command: "And I set watchmen over you, 
saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We 
will not hearken." That is the way a good many men talk now. "We 
don't want the Bible; give us some other book; the idea of men 
talking about the Bible being true! Don't you believe in that book." 
It is the same old human heart, the same old enemy. You will find 
it the same in every age, and in every clime. Pride is a plant that 
grows in all kinds of soil, in winter and in summer, and you will 
find it wherever the foot of man has touched the earth; man just 
rising up and claiming to be wiser than the Almighty. Therefore 
hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 
Hear, O Earth; Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the 
fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my 
words nor to my law, but rejected it." They laughed at Jeremiah. 
The king at last put him into a dungeon, and they cast him into a 
filthy pit, and thought they had got rid of him. But there is a God 
in heaven, and they found out that the Word of God was true; and 
these men that are now trying to fight against the Lord, declaring 
that his word is not true, will find out just as Pharoah did, when he 
asked, "Who is God that I should obey him?" When God comes 
to deal in judgment, these enemies will find out. God has a contro- 
versy with man, on account of sin; and until man turns from sin, 
there can be no fellowship with God. He says in the 84th Psalm, 
11th verse, and to me that is one of the sweetest verses in the Bible: 
"For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace 
and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk up- 
rightly." If a man is willing to walk uprightly, God has promised 
that no good thing will he withhold from him; and how many can 
say that that is true? That is their own experience. When they 
have been willing to obey God heaven has smiled upon them, and 
rich blessings have come upon their souls. 

Now I want to touch on something that is practical, that keeps us 



636 SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD. 

out of communion with God. I believe there is one truth that ought 
to be preached to Christians more than anything else; and that is, 
separation from the world. If the church would draw the line and 
take its stand, I believe it would have a hundred times more power 
than it has at the present time. I do not fear what these infidels 
say about the church of God. The trouble is, we have so many trait- 
ors in camp. They blow hot one day and cold the next. They pat 
you on the back one day, and then stab you in the back. They meet 
you and say, "Oh, this is a fine work, I am very much interested in 
it;" and the next day perhaps they meet an enemy and say, "I don't 
believe in that work at all." We have too many of those men. It 
would be a good thing if every man who is opposed to Jesus Christ 
would take his stand and fight him. What we want is separation;, 
and the quicker it comes the better. 

We read in the 3d chapter of Amos, 3d verse: " Can two walk 
together, except they be agreed?" If you see a man that is in coi" - 
munion with another man, you say, those two men agree pretty well. 
If you see two business men that go to their stores together every 
morning, you say they agree; and if they do not have fellowship 
with one another, you do not have the same impression. If a man 
is going to walk with God, he has got to agree with God. He has 
got to give up his own thoughts and ways; for God is above us, and 
is not going to give up his ways to walk with us. I was in a horse 
car, a little while ago, and saw two young men together. One spoke 
hardly a word without cursing; but the young man that was with 
him did not swear at all ; perhaps he had a praying father or mother. 
But I noticed that they locked arms and went off together. There 
was no difference between them. One did not swear, and the other 
did; but they walked together, and I put the two together. Sup- 
pose I walk with a man to a bank, and while he breaks in and steals 
$100,000 I wait for him, and then walk off with him. The police 
get hold of us, and they make no difference between us. I walked 
to that bank with him, and walked away with him; and I am just as 
bad as that man. If we are going to be hand and glove with the 
ungodly, there is no difference between us. What we want is, to be 
separated. If a man speaks contemptuously of my wife, he is no 
companion for me. If he speaks contemptuously of my mother, he 
is no companion for me. Good bye, sir, I say. I will do all I can 
to save him, but will have no fellowship with him. If a man speaks 
contemptuously of the Son of God — good day, sir, you and I must 
separate. If you are going to walk with God, you have got to be 
separated from those who do not. He said, you know, when he 
brought them up from Egypt, that it was their sin that had separated 
him from them. If we are going to live in sin, God, if he walked 
with us, would appear to be a party to the sin. Therefore, when we 
walk in sin and unbelief, we must separate from him. 



SEPAKATION FEOM THE WORLD. 637 

I want to call your attention to a passage in 2d Corinthians, 6 and 
14: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for 
what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what 
communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ 
with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the 
temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, 
and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my 
people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, 
saitn the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive 
you: And will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons-and 
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 

I know this is not going to be a very popular thing for me to say; 
but when you come to the Word of God, you must look it right in 
the face, and let the truth come out. I believe, if I am a Christian 
man, I have no right to yoke myself up with two ungodly men and 
go into business with them. M Be not unequally yoked with un- 
believers." A man came to me some time ago in great distress; he 
was a banker, and said: "I have got two partners, and they voted 
to do so and so, and it is compromising my Christian character, and 
I cannot outvote them, what shall I do?" I said, "When did you 
form that partnership?" "So many years ago." "How long have 
you been a Christian?" "Fourteen years." "You formed the 
partnership only three or four years ago, and that is where the mis- 
take was made, when you took those two unbelievers into company 
with you." " I thought I could get on a little better, and that is the 
reason I did it." "God told you not to do it; be not 'unequally 
yoked with unbelievers,' and they voted to make the firm do some- 
thing which has compromised your Christian character, and you 
haven't got the power for Christ that you would have if you were 
separated." And there are a great many men who think they can 
make money a little faster, and they go contrary to the Word of 
God. This question also touches matrimony. What right has a 
saintly, godly woman to give herself away to some scoffing infidel, 
because he is rich and has got some position in society? What right 
has a godly man to marry some frivolous, scoffing young lady; that 
hates the church of God and the Bible? "Be not unequally yoked 
with unbelievers." That is what it means. It means more than 
that. What right has a Christian man in some of these lodges, where 
they have got infidels and skeptics that may vote to make him do a 
wrong? If you want power with God, come out and be separated. 
Some one will say, if you take that course you will be very unpopu- 
lar. Well, you will be very popular up there with God, if you obey 
him. Let us take his Word " back to back," and not pick out a pas- 
sage here and there. Let us not be catering to public opinion. I 
would rather be alone, with God holding my right hand and be- 



038 SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD. 

lieving, than to have all Boston applauding me and be wrong with 
God. " Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers." I know there 
may be a great many young men that will scoff at this idea; and 
they will declare that they will marry whom they please, despite 
Avhat the Word of God says. Bear in mind you will not have 
God's blessing upon you. Many a young lady has given herself 
away to some scoffing infidel, and has lived a miserable, wretched 
life. It wasn't long before he began to trample her feelings under 
his feet. A man that will not obey God, and don't care anything 
about the law of God, will not care much about your feelings, in a 
little while. He may profess a great deal of love and friendship for 
you; but he will be unkind to you, by and by. There was a lady in 
Chicago that came to me in great distress. She was engaged alread} T . 
I told her I hardly knew what to tell her, but advised her to go to 
her lover and tell him frankly that she was a Christian, and that their 
ways did not ran together. Well, he gave her up, and said he re- 
spected her more than ever. But it wasn't a week before he was in 
the inquiry-room, and sought her God and was converted. I know 
this doctrine is not what you like; but it is a good deal better to 
know the truth, and what God will have us do, than to go right con- 
trary to the Word of God. Let us ask ourselves this question, Am 
I unequally yoked with unbelievers? Am I yoked up with some 
unbeliever? Perhaps somebody may say, " I have been converted 
since I was married." The Word of God declares that you must 
not leave your husband. I am talking about those who are not mar- 
ried; and if we read our Bibles carefully on that point, we find that 
the Word of God gives no uncertain sound. Some of you may say, 
"I think I can do some good in that way." I would rather be safe 
and take the Word of God for my guide, than be going against it 
and think I am going to do some good. If you haven't any in- 
fluence over the young man you are about to marry, you will not 
have any more after you have married him. 

Then we find a great many people say, " Oh, he is a narrow, big- 
oted man. I believe we are to go in and be yoked up with unbe- 
lievers, and get into all these lodges and societies, and lift them up 
in that way." I suppose Lot believed the same thing when he went 
to Sodom; but it lifted him down instead of up. And instead of 
lifting up the world, we find the world is all the time pulling the 
church down. If you want to be right with God, you want to be 
where you can testify against the sins of the world. Lot lost his in- 
fluence in Sodom, because he became a member of their societies. 
Wives who have unconverted husbands bargain that they will go to 
the theatre with them, if they will goto church on Sunday; and then 
the husbands will find out some minister who don't cut them with 
the truth ; and they might as well be at the theatre as at that church ; 
and wives think they are going to save their husbands in that way. 



SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD. 639 

You want to be separated from unbelievers; and if you want power 
with God and man you must be separated; and then he will walk 
with you, and be with you. I remember a man telling me how the 
•parrows had spoiled his canary, and that it would do nothing but 
chirp, chirp, chirp like the sparrows. That is the trouble with Chris- 
tians now; they cannot sing the songs of Zion, but just chirp, chirp, 
chirp. If they get up in the prayer meeting, they say nothing. If 
you want power with God and man, you must be separated and with- 
draw from the world; and then the Lord God will bless you. 

Let us look at the 11th chapter of Numbers and the 14th verse. I 
think that gives us another view of this truth, and how it is we have 
lost our power. "And the mixed multitude that was among them 
fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, 
Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the flesh that we did eat 
in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and 
the onions, and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away; there 
is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes." What a sad 
picture that was. God gave them angels' food, bread from heaven; 
%nd they loathed it. Why? On account of the mixed multitude; 
they got in with the world, with unbelievers, and they began to talk 
against the manna and about the onions, and leeks and garlics which 
they ate down in Egypt. What do you see to-day? Men loathe 
the Bible; men don't love this bread which has come down from 
heaven, which feeds our souls; they run off to operas and theatres, 
and the world has come into the church. They loathe the manna 
which God has sent them from heaven, on account of this mixed 
multitude. Oh, may God help us to see this truth and separate from 
the world; and, if necessary, walk alone with him. Enoch's name 
was handed down through all these generations, because he walked 
with God. If Enoch had been up for any office, I doubt if he could 
have been elected to the Legislature, or even to any town office. 
But he walked with God, and God must have agreed with him, for 
they never were separated. At one bound, Enoch leaped right over 
the stream; death never touched him. God loved his company so 
much that one day I can imagine he said, " Enoch just come up 
higher;" and up he went. And he has been all these years walking 
the crystal pavements of heaven with God. As old Dr. Bonar of 
Scotland once said to me, "Enoch took a long walk one day, and he 
hasn't got back yet." He is up there, and we will see him, by-and- 
by. Noah walked with God; and God took care of him in the time 
of the flood. Abraham walked with God, and he became the friend 
of God. If we walk in the wilderness to-day, we will walk in Para- 
dise to-morrow. And when we are questioning ourselves if it is right 
to do this or that, ask the question if Christ would do it, and govern 
ourselves accordingly. Let us do as he did, have the same mind 



640 THE LIFE OF PETER. 

that he has, and try and follow in his footsteps and be like him in all 
our ways. 



THE LIFE OF PETER. 

The first glimpse we had of him was when Andrew called him. 
He was first called as a disciple, not as an apostle. The second call 
was when he was called to the work of the ministry. The next 
glimpse we had was related in the 5th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, 
when the Lord spoke to the people the words of God from the boat 
at the seaside, and then follows the miraculous draught of fishes. 
Then it was that Peter said: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 
O God." Then Jesus said that thereafter Peter would catch men. 
The thought he wanted to call attention to was, that when Peter 
was called he didn't leave his work until called twice. There were 
too many unprepared men in the Lord's work; there were too many 
men made ministers in the world to-day. He said this because 
there were a good many young men, young converts, who were 
looking to the work of the ministry and thinking they were called 
to that. John Wesley used to say to young men, candidates for the 
ministry, when they preaohed: "Did you make anyone mad?" 
"No." "Did you convert anybody?" and then they would say "No." 
"Then," Wesley said, "that's a very good evidence you're not 
called." Men need to have souls before they begin this work. The 
Lord first made these men go to the lake and take a great haul of 
fish, and then when they were called, they had something to leave. 
They didn't have much to leave, but they left what they had. What 
had they to leave? A few broken nets and a haul of fish. And 
that's the way with a great many Christians of the present day; they 
don't want to leave their little draught of fishes and their broken 
nets. The next time we get a glimpse of Peter is in the 14th chap- 
ter of Matthew, where the Lord tells Peter to walk on the water. 
Here we find Peter in "Doubting Castle." And that was where 
Peter got his eye off the Lord, and he saw the waves and heard the 
wind; then his eyes wandered away from Christ. But Peter's 
prayer was to the point; it didn't begin with a long preamble, which 
would have put him forty feet under water before the Lord heard it. 
But it was to the point: "Lord, save me; I perish." Again, in the 



THE LIFE OF PETER. 641 

16th chapter we find that Christ is saying, "Whom say men that I 
am?" and then he asked Peter, and Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the Living God." This shows the power there was in con- 
fessing Christ. Peter was a true Trinitarian; he got square on the rock. 
Again we find him indulging in man-worship, the first beginnings of 
Rome. This was on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter said, 
" Let us make three Tabernacles;" and as soon as he said this, why, 
God just snatched Moses and Elias away and left them only Jesus. 
There was too much of this minister- worship, of this church-worship 
at the present day. This was illustrated in the twenty-second chap- 
ter of revelations, 9th verse; where the angel said, "Worship God." 
If Christ was not the Son of God, then Christians were the greatest 
idolaters that ever lived. Again, we found Peter in the 26th chap- 
ter of Matthew, at the 23d verse, where Peter's fall was recited. He 
became self-confident and spiritually proud. The Lord couldn't use 
him until he had been humbled, and here he stood up among the 
Lord's disciples, just as though he was all-powerful. This lesson of 
humility must be learned by every man whom God uses. "Let him 
that standeth take heed lest he fall." The greatest Bible characters 
fell because they failed in their strongest points. Moses, the meek- 
est man, was not allowed to see the promised land, and there were 
Saul, and David, and Jacob, and Peter, at this very time when he 
was boasting of his own power. He was always sure that young 
converts who say they're safe were where the devil will trip them 
up. Again, Peter was asleep in the garden when the Lord told them 
to watch. That was the time when Satan had these Christians in 
the churches asleep, and then troubles came in the churches. Then 
came the next step — "he followed him afar off." and this was the 
gradual downward course. No one would find a Christian man in 
the theatre; those Christians who are in such places are all asleep. 
Men of the world said they liked "liberal Christians," but these men 
were never sent for by dying men. They would never find a card- 
playing, a smoking and chewing, a horse racing, and a dancing Chris- 
tian who ever amounted to anything. Then the next step was when 
Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant; 
and then, again, Peter denied the Lord — first to the young maid, and 
then to another servant. But so here were two denials by the very 
man who but a few hours before had said he would never betray or 
forsake the Lord. Then, again, the third time the servant said, " Thy 
speech betrayeth thee," but Peter answered with oaths that he never 
knew him. It's hard for a Christian to forget the speech of the 
Lord's people, even after he has long departed from the way of God 
and Christ. But one look brought Peter back, one word undid all 
that Satan had been doing for hours, and he went out and wept bit- 
terly. One of the first words that Christ said after the crucifixion and 
resurrection was, "Tell the disciples and Peter," and Peter had a 
41 



642 THE RESURRECTION. 

personal interview with the Lord. And then, when Christ was leav- 
ing him, he asked him, "Lovest thou me more than these?" But 
Peter didn't answer; he had learned humility, and after the Lord 
asked him again, Peter, now humble, already meet for the Master's 
use, said, " Lord, thou knowest." 



THE RESURRECTION. 

"We have for our subject, this morning, the Resurrection. The 
Resurrection is spoken of forty-two times in the New Testament. It 
is, you might say, one of the chief corner-stones in the religion of 
Jesus Christ. You might say that there are two principal truths 
taught all through the New Testament; the death, and resurrection, 
of Jesus Christ. You touch one, and you touch them both. In fact, 
you take that out of the New Testament, and you take cut the key 
to the whole gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Let me call your attention to what Christ said about his own res- 
urrection. Matthew 16 and 21: "From that time forth began Jesus 
to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and 
suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and 
be killed, and be raised again the third day." Then, while he was 
talking with his disciples after the transfiguration, we find in Mat- 
thew 17 and 9, that he said to the disciples, as they came down 
from the mountain: " Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man. 
be risen again from the dead." Then in Mark 9th and 31st: " For 
he taught his disciples and said unto them: The Son of man is de- 
livered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that 
he is killed, he shall rise the third day." 

Over and over again, he told the disciples that he was going to 
rise; and one very singular thing about it is that his enemies seemed 
to remember what he said about the resurrection, while his disciples 
seemed to have forgotton it; because, after he was dead, they went 
to Pilate and asked him to make the sepulchre secure, because they 
said, "While this deceiver was alive, he said he should rise again;" 
and we cannot find any place where the disciples remembered the 
words of the Lord Jesus that he should rise again. And when they 
laid him away Friday night, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus 
and those few women of Galilee followed him to his last resting place. 
There is not one solitary passage of Scripture that tells us that they 



THE RESURRECTION. 643 

had any hope of his resurrection. It seemed to have passed from 
their minds; or else they never received it when Christ told them, 
and he told them plainly. 

In the 12th of Matthew we read that they wanted a sign: " Then 
certain of the Scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, 
we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said to them, 
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there 
shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah." And 
then he went on and told them that that should be the sign of his 
death and resurrection. Now, what was the sight? I was very 
much interested, some time ago, in hearing a Welchman tell me 
that he was preaching once on that subject of Jonah being the sign; 
and he said that he could just imagine when the news got to Nine- 
veh about this man being sent from the Lord to Nineveh with this 
message, and how, when the captain got ashore, he reported about 
this man being on board, and at his own request being thrown over- 
board, and then they saw the whale swallow Jonah; and, of course, 
Nineveh was greatly stirred up, at the idea of a man being sent from 
the Lord to Nineveh with a message, and being slain on the way be- 
cause he had refused to go, and so had been swallowed up by the 
whale. There is death. But what must have been the stir in Nine- 
veh when this very resurrected man came through the streets of 
Nineveh, preaching that they must repent or all perish. That was 
resurrection. And now Christ says that was the sign. 

There are a great many people, even at this present time, who 
don't believe Christ has risen; they say his Spirit is still in the world, 
but his body never came up out of the grave. But then the Word 
of God teaches nothing of the kind. Earth and hell did all they 
could to keep that body in the grave ; but they could not do it. He 
laid there Friday night, and all through the Jewish Sabbath; and his 
disciples were mourning and weeping. As I said before, they had 
given up all hope of ever seeing him again; but you can see those 
hands that were cold in death Friday night, and see Death hovering 
over that sepulchre, laughing and saying: " I hold my victim in my 
own embrace; he has to pay tribute to me. He said he was the res- 
urrection and the life; and yet he has not escaped me." But the 
hour had come for Christ to conquer Death, for that was what he 
went into the grave for. Death didn't take him into the grave; he fol- 
lowed Death into his own dominion and took the whole territory and 
bound him hand and foot, and came up victorious, and brought up 
a few captives to show his mighty power. 

Yes, my friend, Christ went down into the grave for you and me; 
and it seems to me that one of the most precious truths in the wholo 
Word of God is that our Christ is not dead. He don't lay there in 
Joseph's sepulchre; but he is risen. And now just see the proof 
that we have of it. Men and angels, bear in mind, guarded that 



644 THE RESURRECTION. 

sepulchre; they were going to make sure that his body should not 
come up, that he should not rise; they had gone to Pilate and got 
him to put soldiers to watch the sepulchre, and they rolled a great 
stone over it and put the Roman seal on it, and there they had that 
body secure, perfectly safe. And early in the morning, we are told 
by the Evangelists, these same women started to go to the sepulchre 
to anoint his body, and found out that he was risen. Why, do you 
think if they had thought he was going to rise that they would have 
left that sepulchre? They would have lingered around it; it would 
have taken more than a hundred Roman soldiers to keep those dis- 
ciples away from the sepulchre, if they thought he was going to rise. 
Now, early in the gray of the morning, you could see these women 
going toward the sepulchre. They had got their spices all ready to 
anoint that body again, and they were greatly troubled, because they 
did not know who was going to roll away the stone. And you see 
them as they draw near to the sepulchre; and the sun has just driven 
away the darkness of the night and that beautiful morning is burst- 
ing upon the earth, the best morning this world had ever seen. And 
one says to another, " Who shall roll away the stone?" But a mes- 
senger came from yon world of light; he flew faster than the morn- 
ing light, and arrived first. And he rolled away the stone; and those 
men that had been sent there by Pilate, to watch and guard that 
sepulchre, began to tremble, and fell as dead men; they hadn't any 
power. One angel was enough to roll away that stone; not to let 
him out, but to let you and I look in to see that the sepulchre was 
empty, to let the morning light into that sepulchre to light it up that 
we might know that he had risen, "the first fruits of them that 
slept." Yes, thank God, he has conquered Death and the grave; 
and you can shout now, " O grave, where is thy victory !" He 
went down into the grave and conquered it, and came up out of it; 
and now he says, "Because I live, ye shall live also." 

The news spread. These women soon found out that the sepul- 
chre was empty, and they ran back and told the disciples; and Peter 
and John rushed off to the sepulchre and found that the body was 
not there. They lingered around the sepulchre, and then went 
home, saying, "It is no use; his enemies have got his body." And 
all the Roman government and all the leading men of the Jewish 
nation were opposed to these few weak disciples; and what could 
they do? Ah, there was one that loved him; she could not leave 
that empty sepulchre; she wanted to stay around, in the hope that 
she might get some news of what they had done with the body. 
While she was there, a man observed her and said, " Woman, why 
weepest thou?" And she said, "They have taken away my Lord, 
and I know not where they have laid him." And then he spoke to 
her, in that old familiar voice, and says, "Mary;" and she recog- 
nized him and said, "Rabboni, Master!" Oh, how her heart leaped 



THE RESURRECTION. 6i5 

within her for joy. He that was dead was alive! There was her 
Savior, standing right before her, and he said, " Go back and tell 
my brethren that I have risen." He had got on resurrection ground, 
and he could call them " brethren," and put them on a level with 
himself. 

What joyful news for her to take; what a blessed privilege to go 
and bear the tidings of the resurrection, the first one that got the 
blessed news. He out of that very one cast out seven devils, and 
now she was to take the tidings back to Jerusalem that the Lord had 
risen. She had seen him with her own eyes; he had spoken to her; 
it was a living body; it was not his spirit, but his own body that 
had come out of that sepulchre, although the disciples would not be- 
lieve it. And while she was spreading the news, some others took 
it up to spread the story; and all at once Christ stood before them. 
That was his second appearing; and he told John to tell them to go 
back to Jerusalem and tell that he had risen. And I think if you 
would look through your Bibles carefully, you will find that ten dif- 
ferent times he appeared to his disciples, not in the Spirit, but in the 
body, in person. I want to get this thing established in all our 
minds, that Christ has come out of the grave personally, that his 
body has gone back to heaven. The same body they crucified; the 
same body they laid in Joseph's sepulchre has come out of the jaws 
of death and out of the sepulchre; and he has passed through the 
heavens and gone back on high. We are told he had an interview 
with Peter, who is alluded to as Simon and as Cephas. We can im- 
agine what took place at that interview, and that Peter's old diffi- 
culty was settled. Peter denied him, but at that interview Christ 
forgave him. What a Sabbath it must have been for Peter! 
What a blessed day for that poor backslider! And if there is some 
backslider here to-day, who will have an interview with the Son of 
God, he will forgive you this Easter morning, and blot out all your 
wanderings and all your sins, if you will come back; and it will be a 
joyful day for you. 

Late in the afternoon, that same day, Jesus appeared to the two 
men who were walking back to Emmaus, a village about eight miles 
from Jerusalem; and they constrained him to go in and take tea 
with them. After he vanished from their sight, they walked back 
to Jerusalem, and told the joyful news to the disciples that the Lord 
had risen; but Thomas was absent on that occasion. And while 
they were telling the good news, Jesus stood in their midst. They 
turned pale; and he said, "Don't be frightened. It is me, only me. 
Put your finger in these wounds that were made on Calvary; thrust 
your hand in my side if you like; it is only me; it is not a spirit." 
He wanted those men to be convinced that the body had come up 
out of the grave. He asked for something to eat, and they gave 
him some fish; and he ate before them and said, "Peace be unto 



646 THE RESURRECTION. 

you," and breathed on them the Holy Ghost, and said " Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost." That makes five times that he appeared to the 
disciples when he arose that blessed Easter Sunday. 

Now Thomas was absent, and the news soon reached him, but he 
would not believe what was told him. When the next Lord's day 
came the eleven were assembled in that room, with the windows fast- 
ened and the doors bolted, the Lord stood there again; and he spoke 
to Thomas, and he told him to put his finger into the wounds, and to 
thrust his hand into his side; and Thomas cried out, " My Lord and 
my God." He didn't have to put his hand there; he knew it; he 
heard his voice; his infidelity and unbelief was scattered to the four 
winds; he believed then and there. And then the Lord said, 
" Blessed are those that have not seen, but yet believe." He pro- 
nounced a benediction upon you and I here, if we will only believe 
on him. " Blessed are those that have not seen, but yet believe." 

The next time we hear of Christ, he appears to John and James 
and Peter and Nathaniel, and two other disciples, while fishing. 
They were out all night and had caught nothing; and about day- 
break there was a man seen on shore, and he said, " Children, have 
you any meat?" " No, we haven't got anything." He told them to 
cast the net on the right side, and they got a haul of 143 large fishes 
and the net didn't break. And John said, " Peter, that is the Lord;" 
they knew him. Success is always with those the Lord is with. 
They cast that net at his word; they knew it was his power, and 
Peter was so anxious to get to him — ah, Peter loved the Lord, if he 
did deny him once — that he leaped right into the water and swam 
ashore, and got there first to meet him. And he had a fire made, 
and they had some bread, and took a resurrection breakfast. 

Oh, may every one hear his voice this morning, saying, " Come 
and eat;" and then we can go out and feed others! I hope every 
Christian this morning will get some food. 

And then Paul tells us, over in Corinthians, that he appeared to 
over five hundred at one time; but where it took place, we don't 
know. It is supposed by a great many to have been over in one of 
the mountains of Galilee; and he talked with them, and it might 
have been at that time that he told them to " Go and preach the 
gospel to every creature;" and carry the tidings around the world. 
"Lo, I am with you, I will not leave you; if I go away I will send 
the Holy Ghost to comfort you, and greater works he shall do." 
Some one says a good many reformations die out with the reformer; 
but this reformer has gone upon high, to carry out his own reforma- 
tion. He is at the right hand of God; and where can he be to carry 
on his work any better than up yonder? We are told by Paul 
that he appeared once to James; but we have no glimpse of that in- 
terview. 

The last interview he had with them was in Jerusalem; and he 



THE RESURRECTION. 647 

took the little band of believers out cf the city, down through the 
Eastern gate, down through the valley of Jehosaphat, over the brook 
Kedron, past that garden where he sweated drops of blood, past Cal- 
vary, over the brow of the hill, and went out past Bethany, where 
Martha and Mary and Lazarus (the resurrected man) lived; and 
perhaps right there, under a cluster of little olive trees, he met his 
disciples for the last time to bid them farewell, and gave them his 
parting message. Now he says: "I go home; I go back to the 
throne; (he had been out of the grave forty days); now I ascend 
to God." And while he was blessing them — for you know he came 
blessing, the first thing he said on that memorable mountain when 
he preached that wonderful sermon, there were nine blessings right, 
out of his heart, he could not go on until he got them out: "Blessed 
are the poor;" Blessed are the peacemakers;" Blessed, blessed; and 
he recited those wondrous things and blessed them. And while he 
was blessing them, he began to ascend; and he rose higher and 
higher; and his voice grew fainter and fainter, and at last it died 
away int he clouds; and the clouds received him out of their sight. 

I can imagine up in the clouds there was a chariot from the 
throne, to take him back home; his work was finished; he rides like 
Elijah in that golden chariot, and sweeps away through the heavens 
to the throne. Look at him on his way to that world where all 
honor him, and all love him! And as he went sweeping upon his 
way home, he did not forget his little church; he could see them, 
but they could not see him; and I can see Peter and John looking 
up, in hopes that there will be a break in the clouds so that they may 
see him once more. And while they stand there, gazing up into 
heaven, you can see tears trickling down their cheeks, their hearts 
have almost gone out of their body; and he looks back and sees 
them; and he says to two of the angels who were conveying him 
home, " Go back, and tell those men that I will come back again." 
I don't know but they were the two Mary saw in the sepulcre; and 
they said: "Ye men of Gallilee, why stand ye grazing up into 
heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, 
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 
Thank God, he is coming back! It is only a question of time. And 
in such a day and hour as we think not, he will rend the heavens and 
come back. Lift up your hearts, for the time of your redemption 
draweth near. We don't worship a dead Savior! He has passed 
through the heavens, gone up on high, led captivity captive and 
taken his seat at the right hand of God. 

Paul saw him, and Stephen saw him, standing at the night hand of 
God. He is there, my friends. Thanks be to God, he is not here. 
They laid him in Joseph's sepulchre; he is risen and up yonder, and, 
not only that, "If I go, I will send the Holy Ghost." And after he 
had been gone ten days, the Holy Ghost came, and just fulfilled his 



648 THE RESURRECTION 

word. Do you think this audience would have been here this morn- 
ing, if it had not been for the Holy Ghost? Do you believe preach- 
ing the gospel for 1800 years would have kept the people, if it had 
not have been for the Holy Ghost coming? Ah, my friends, it is the 
Holy Ghost he sent when he went into heaven. And now, my 
friends, let me say, in closing, if we will just preach more about the 
resurrected Savior, and if we live more about him and try and real- 
ize the power that we get in him and through him, we will accom- 
plish more this last month of our labors than we have accomplished 
in all the rest of our lives. 

Oh, may God help us to realize what a precious truth we have to 
preach; that we are not worshiping a dead Savior; that he is a resur- 
rected Savior, and in such a day and hour as we think not he will re- 
turn. And although we do not know when that will be, there is one 
thing we do know, and that is that he has promised to come; and 
that day is not far distant; we haven't but a little while to work. As 
Christine Evans says: "The songs of these bursting sepulchres, 
when Christ shall come, will be sweeter than the song of the morn- 
ing star." We shall come up from the grave, by and by, with a shout. 
"He is the first fruits;" he has gone into the vale, and will call us 
by and by. The voice of the Son of God shall wake up the slum- 
bering dead! Jacob will leave his lameness, and Paul will leave his 
thorn in the flesh; and we shall come up resurrected bodies, and be 
forever with the Lord. I pity those people who know nothing 
about the resurrection of Christ, and think Christ does not live, and 
was merely a man, and perished in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea. 
What hope have they got? 

Oh, what gloom and darkness settles down upon this world, if it 
was not for the glorious day of resurrection. And those that have 
been sown in dishonor and corruption shall be raised, by and by, in 
glory and honor; they shall come up out of their graves, and we 
shall be forever with them. Oh, may this blessed truth take hold of 
all our hearts, and may we go out from this Tabernacle and spread 
the news that the Lord has risen. He has gone up on high, and he 
will bless the sons of men, if they will receive a blessing from him. 



JESUS FULFILLING PROPHECY. 

You thgtt were here last Sunday morning remember I was speak- 
ing about Christ in the Old Testament, and how the Scripture was 
fulfilled in his birth. This morning I want to take up the subject 
where I left off, and show that everything about Christ was wonder- 
ful. All these prophecies in the Old Testament about Christ were 
wonderful; everything about his life and death were wonderful. We 
find a great many people now who tell us that they don't see any- 
thing wonderful in Christ; that he was like ordinary men, like all 
other men; and they see no reason why they should believe in him 
as being more than human. I want to call your attention to what 
Gabriel said about him. 

Gabriel's name appears three times in Scripture; and every time 
that he comes to earth, he comes to bring some tidings about the 
Lord Jesus Christ. He first came to Babylon, when Daniel was 
praying, to tell him that he was not only greatly beloved, but to give 
him the secret that was in heaven: that the Messiah should come, 
and that he should be cut off for the transgressions of God's peo- 
ple. Five hundred years have rolled away, and the last prophet's 
voice has been heard in the land and the Word has been sealed; his 
prophecy has been closed, and not a sound of a prophet has been 
heard in that land that had been so exalted. The last prophecy was 
closed up about four hundred years before Christ came; and an old 
priest by the name of Zacharias was burning incense in the Temple, 
in his regular course. We are told that he and his wife Elizabeth 
were good people; they were righteous, but they had a crook in their 
path like a great many now. They had no children, and it was con- 
sidered in those days a great dishonor not to have children; and we 
are told that they had been praying that they might have a child ; 
but I suppose they had grown faint, and had given up all hope of 
having their prayers answered; perhaps they had forgotten how God 
answered the prayers of Abraham and Sarah and gave them a child 
in their old age, and how Hannah also had a child in her old age, 
and also how Samson's father and mother had been honored by a 
child. And now we find that this old priest was not in the holiest 
of the holies, but in the place where they burned incense, just out- 
side of the curtain that was rent when Christ died. There was an 
altar, and on it was the incense, where he went in twice a day to 
burn the incense to God; and while he was thus engaged, the peo- 
ple were in the outer court; and it was the custom for them to wait 
649 



650 JESUS FULFILLING PROPHECY. 

until the priest came out, and I suppose he blessed them, the same 
as people wait now for the benediction, — although they don't always 
wait here, but hurry to get home some nights; but in those days 
they waited for the benediction. And the old priest didn't come out 
one day, he tarried longer than usual; for while he was thus engaged 
at the altar who should meet him but this same man Gabriel, who 
met Daniel away off in Babylon five hundred years before, and 
Zachariah was filled with fear when he saw him; and he told him to 
fear not, he brought him some good news; his prayers were an- 
swered. Let me read what Gabriel said to the old priest: 

"And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing on 
the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him 
he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto 
him, fear not, Zacharias; for thy prayer is heard: and to wife, Eliza- 
beth, shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And 
thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. 
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neith- 
er wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, 
even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel 
shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in 
the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to- 
ward the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to 
make ready a people prepared for the Lord." He was not only to 
have a child, but his child was to become great in the sight of God ; 
and he was not only to become great, but to become a good child, 
and to be filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb, and he should 
turn many to righteousness. 

How pleased that old priest was; but Zacharias was like a great 
many now, full of unbelief. Instead of rememberiug how God had 
answered the prayers of Abraham, he says, "How can this be? how 
can I have a child?" "And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby 
shall I know this? for 1 am an old man, and my wife well stricken 
in years. And the angel answering, said unto him, I am Gabriel, 
that stand in the presence of God." I suppose Gabriel never had 
been doubted before. He might have said, " Where has an angel 
ever told a lie?" An angel sent by God into this world never told 
a lie; and all the promises they brought to this world have been lit- 
erally fulfilled. He was amazed, perhaps for the first time in his 
life. He had come from a world where unbelief is a stanger, where 
doubts are unknown, where everyone believes what God has said; 
and now he thinks that this old priest ought to have known what 
God said was true. But Zacharias wanted a token. Somebody has 
said that is the trouble now in the churches; a great many people 
want a token, outside the Word of God. Gabriel said, " You shall 
have a token, you shall be dumb for the next nine months; you shall 
not speak until the child is born." He got all the token he wanted. 



JESUS FULFILLING PROPHECY. 651 

The reason we have so many dumb Christians is, they want a token, 
outside of the Bible, and they are not sure what God says is true. 
When he came out, the people noticed a change in the old priest; 
and there was no small stir in Jerusalem, when it was written out 
by Zacharias what had taken place. When the time came for him 
to retire from office, he took his wife and went off into the hilly 
country of Judea; and he remained until the child was born. 

But six months from that time Gabriel made his third visit. Ga- 
briel came down again, and he brought better news than ever. He 
came to that country girl off in Nazareth, and tells her that she is to 
be the mother of that child that Israel had been looking for, for 
4,000 years. Wonder of wonders! No wonder that she was star- 
tled; all the mothers in Israel had been praying that they might be 
the mother of that child. Here is a young country girl, a young 
virgin, that was to be the mother of that child. Let us read what 
Gabriel says to her: "And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel 
was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth ; to a vir- 
gin espoused to a man. whose name was Joseph, of the house of 
David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in 
unto her and said, Hail thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with 
thee; blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him she 
was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of 
salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, 
Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold thou shalt 
conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shall call his name 
Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; 
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father 
David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and 
of his kingdom there shall be no end." 

How that has been fulfilled. Eighteen hundred years have rolled 
away; he has got a kingdom in this world; it is in the hearts of many. 
There are millions this morning that would go to the stake to lay 
down their lives for this kingdom, for Christ; there are many loyal 
sons to-day in the world; loyal to the King of Heaven. 

"Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know 
not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her: The Holy 
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over- 
shadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of 
thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold .thy cousin Eliza- 
beth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the 
sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing 
shall be impossible." Bear in mind what Gabriel said to Mary about 
this child. He was not only to be great, but his name should be 
great, too; He shall be called Jesus. He has 256 names, which you 
can find in the Bible; but he still bears that name; we like it better 
than any other. It was the name which came from heaven; it was the 



652 JESUS FULFILLING PROPHECY. 

sweetest name any mortal had; it was the name which fired up the 
whole Jewish nation, like Joshua's. They ought to have hailed it 
with joy and gladness; they had got another Joshua, another deliv- 
erer, one who was come to set the captives free, as we have been try- 
ing to tell you this past week. Mary started at once, left her home 
in Nazareth and went off into the hill country where Elizabeth was; 
and the moment she met that aged cousin of hers, that child leaped 
in the womb. Marvelous and wonderful thing! And yet men say 
they don't see anything wonderful about it. Everything about 
Christ is wonderful. And now we find that Elizabeth breaks out 
into praise, and so does Mary. 

I wish I had time to read what they said, but they spent three 
months together, and just before John is born Mary returns to her 
own country; and it seems to me quite singular that thisjast prophet 
that was to be given to the old nation — the old dispensation was 
just fading away, just dying out, and they were right on the eve of 
a new dispensation — that John should be born of an old woman, but 
Christ, who was to usher in the new, was to be born of a young vir- 
gin. And in the fullness of time, when the nine months had ex- 
pired, John was born; and his relatives wanted to call him after his 
father, but Elizabeth insisted on calling him John. Finally they 
asked^the old priest, and he wrote, " His name shall be called John. 1 ' 
That name came from heaven. Gabriel brought the name John, 
and they could not have changed it. In the G5th verse of the 1st 
chapter of Luke it says: " And fear came on all that dwelt round 
about there; and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout 
the hill-country of Judea. And all they that heard them laid them 
up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be? And 
the hand of the Lord was with him." 

John means the grace of God! This was the grace of God, giv- 
ing us this child; and about three months from that time there was 
another stir at Bethlehem — Mary gave birth to the child Jesus. The 
shepherds made haste to find the child, and when they found it they 
made haste to proclaim him to the world. 

" And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of 
the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the 
angel before he was conceived in the womb." In another place it 
says: " His name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people 
from their sins," Let me ask you if it is true; will He save His peo- 
ple from their sins? Is he able now, in the nineteenth century, to 
save a man from his sins? Can a man save another man from sin? 
Would you say that there is another man in the world that can save 
this world from sin? Suppose we began to preach up some other 
man, eleven weeks ago; do you think there would have been so 
many people here this morning? What other name can we preach? 
Now just think a moment. Suppose we preach anything but Jesus 



JESUS FULFILLING PEOPHECY. 653 

Christ; would this crowd have been here this morning? Could they 
have been held together for eleven weeks? This very fact, it seems 
to me, ought to settle this question who Christ is. You may preach 
other names; but that will not save men from sin. You may preach 
that people ought to be moral and virtuous and ought to do this and 
do that; but if you don't tell them where they can get the power 
from to do it, they will go right on in their sins. But the moment 
you begin to preach Christ, and tell the world that He has power on 
earth to forgive sins, and "His name shall be called Jesus for He shall 
save his people from their sins," why then the people begin to gather 
to him. And where is there a name to be compared with that of Je- 
sus? See how his kingdom is being extended, and how the heralds 
of the cross are going over deserts and mountains, and over this dark 
earth, to proclaim his name to a perishing world. 

But then another scene takes place, we find them in the temple. 
"And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Sim- 
eon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the con- 
solation of Israel; and the Holy Ghost was upon him." I want to 
call your attention to one thought, that whenever the Holy Ghost is 
upon a man he will always honor Christ and speak well of him. 
* l And it was revealed unto him, by the Holy Ghost, that he should 
not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came 
by the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the 
child Jesus, to do for him after the customs of the law, then took 
he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest 
thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine 
eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the 
face of all thy people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory 
of thy people Israel." That was prophetic. The light hadn't gone 
out then to the Gentiles; they were considered by the Jews out- 
casts; they were not allowed to go into their temple, only into the 
outer court. " And Joseph and his mother marveled at these things, 
which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said un- 
to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising 
again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken 
against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also; that 
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Mr. Moody then 
read from the 35th to the 39th verses.) 

Jerusalem is again startled; this time by the wise men coming 
from the East to see him that was born King of the Jews. They go 
to Nazareth, guided by the star, and worship that little babe as God. 
He was God in flesh, the son of God come down from heaven to re- 
deem the world. Herod ordered all those little children to be put to 
death. They were the'first martyrs; "for of such is the kingdom of 
Heaven." Herod the Great was the first enemy Christ had, the first 
to unsheath the sword against Christ; and history tells us that he 



G54 SIGNS OF THE NEW BIBTH. 

only lived thirty days after unsheathing that sword. The stone fell 
upon him and crushed him to powder; and instead of his falling be- 
fore the stone and yielding to Christ, he drew his sword against him 
and was going to find him; but God took care of his child and He 
was safe in Egypt when Herod's order was executed. Herod was 
called Herod the Great, but how small he looked; his name has gone 
down to posterity rotten. 

Oh, may God help us this morning to hail the coming Christ. He 
is going to come back, by and by, and reign upon earth. May God 
help each one of us to receive him as our Redeemer. 



SIGNS OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

There was a lady came into the inquiry-room, this week, and 
wanted to have me tell her if she was a Christian. I told her I would 
be very happy to tell her if I knew, but I did not know. I would 
have liked to have had time to tell her how she might know, how it 
was her privilege to find out whether she was a child of God or not; 
because I think the Scripture is very plain about it, and does not 
leave us in the dark, if we are determined to find out whether we 
have been born of the Spirit or not. This afternoon, I want to call 
your attention to nine new things, if we are born of God. 

The first is a new heart: " Except a man be born again, he cannot 
see the kingdom of God " — born from above, born of the Spirit. 
Three different ways the Scripture has put it — born again, born from 
above, born of the Spirit. Now this new birth is not the work of 
man; it is the work of God. God alone is the author of life. A 
great many people tell, us in the inquiry-room, that this is a great 
mystery; that they do not understand about this new birth. It is a 
mystery, they say. Well, there is no doubt about that; Christ says 
so himself. We will admit it is a mystery; but, nevertheless, it is 
one of the most important there is in the Word of God. I have no 
doubt but every woman in this assembly has met some one who has 
been changed by the Spirit of God: they have been born again; they 
have received a new heart. They were not the same that they were 
once. It was not a mere profession. It was not their being con- 
firmed on Easter Sunday, or being baptized in some church on some 
Sabbath morning; it was not their partaking of the communion. 
These are all right in their place; but they are not the new birth. 



SIGNS OF THE NEW BMITH. 655 

Let us keep that in mind. Profession is one thing; conversion is 
another. A man may be a leper, and cover up his leprosy; but he 
is a leper still. A man may be a beggar, and put on a new suit of 
clothes; but he is a beggar still. 

We are told here, in the 1st Epistle of John, 5th chapter and 4th 
verse, what will happen if we are born of God: "For whosoever is 
born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that over- 
cometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the 
world, but he that believe th that Jesus is the Son of God?" Now if 
we overcome the world, it is a sign that we have been born of God; 
but if we are all the time fighting and striving to overcome it and be- 
ing defeated, it is a good sign we have not been born again of 
the Spirit. For in the 6th chapter of Galatians, 15th verse, it says: 
" For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor un- 
circumcision, but a new creature." 

Now forms and ordinances are very good; but they do not make 
a new creature. If we are born of God, then we have power, and 
will overcome the world. Now I find there are a great many people 
that, the moment we touch on regeneration and the new birth, say: 
" I have heard people tell the day and the hour when they were 
converted; but I never had that experience. I cannot point to a day 
or an hour when God met me, and when old things passed away." 
Therefore they are in great trouble, for fear they have not been con- 
verted. Let me say, right here, that it is of little account when or 
where it took place, and you can soon find out whether it has taken 
place or not. Some people are converted like the flashing of a meteor; 
with others it is like the rising of the morning sun, and you cannot 
tell the minute it was light. But if they have passed from death unto 
life, they can soon tell by reading the Word of God whether they 
have been born again or not. So it is not necessary for us to be able 
to tell when or where this birtih took place; but it is very important 
that we should be able to say that we are new creatures in Christ 
Jesus; that we have been born of the Spirit, because Christ gave no 
uncertain sound about this thing. He said, Except a man be born 
again, except he be converted, except he become as a little child, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God. We have to come like little chil- 
dren into his kingdom. So it is very important to search the Scrip- 
tures, and see whether we have been born again or not. 

The next new thing we get is a creation. It says in the 5th chap- 
ter of the 2d Corinthians, 17th verse: "Therefore, if any man be in 
Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all 
things are become new." There was a man converted when we were 
in New York. He was an awful hard case; he had been drinking a 
great many years. He was a Frenchman, came from Canada. He 
had been brought up from his childhood to drink; and he never saw 
any harm in it till he drank his family all away from him; and there 



656 SIGNS OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

he was, a wanderer. He came into one of the meetings, and some 
friends talked with him, and got down and prayed with him. The 
moment he began to ask God for mercy, God blessed him right there. 
When he got up, he did not know himself. He was a new man in 
old clothes. He has held on ever since; his appetite for strong 
drink is gone; and he has become a new creature in Christ Jesus. 
It takes away the love we have for this wOrld, and the desire for sin. 
We cannot receive the spiritual blessings that God wants to give us, 
if we are not born of the Spirit. It says in 1st Corinthians, 2d 
chapter, 14th verse: But the natural man receiveth not the things 
of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned?" Every week 
if not every night, we find that literally fulfilled in the inquiry room, 
The moment you begin to talk to some people about spiritual things, 
they say, "I don't understand them;" and it is a sign thev have not 
been born of God. I can tell, when I am preaching, that they do 
not understand a word I say. The Word of God is all a myth to 
them, it is all foolishness to them. They do not believe the Word 
of God. But the moment a person is born of the Spirit, he receives 
the Word of God into his heart, and so gets strength. The natural 
man receiveth not spiritual things. 

Then, the next thing that we get with this new birth is a new 
nature. We become partakers of the Divine nature. If we 
have a nature that is godlike and Christlike, a nature that just longs 
for God and spiritual things, it is an evidence that we have been 
born of the Spirit. The old nature may remain, does remain, but we 
get a new nature; we serve God, and we cannot serve him without 
that nature. This new nature must have a new God. Everyone in 
Boston has some god; if not the God of heaven, some idol that has 
been made into a god. We have new hopes, new aims, new desires, 
new aspirations then. Old things have floated away; and we have 
something better. The new things are just as separate from the old 
as day from night. The moment we get that new nature, then the 
warfare begins. I never had any conflict with myself till I was born 
of God. I had a pretty good opinion of myself, till I got a new na- 
ture. But then the warfare began, and it has gone on ever since; 
though, thank God, He can give me the victory. If a man says he is 
not at war with himself, it is a pretty good sign he has not a heaven- 
ly nature. When you find a man with a bad nature, a mean, con- 
temptible disposition, a mean temper, and he is praying to Christ to 
overcome it, you may know that he has become a partaker of the Di- 
vine nature, and he can get strength from God to get victory. I 
have more respect for a woman with a mean, contemptible nature, 
who is trying to overcome it, than I have for those who are naturally 
pretty good and do not want to become any better. You do not 
know the struggle some of these people have that you look down 



SIGNS OF TBE NEW BIRTH. 657 

upon. They come into this world with a mean, contemptible na- 
ture; and Christ has overcome them, so that you can get along with 
them. I do not know how we could live with a good many people, 
but for this grace of God. The natural man lives for himself; but 
when he is born of God, he lives for God; he gets outside of him- 
self, and God calls out the noblest part of his nature. Then we 
are following in the footsteps of our Master, and we receive his 
Spirit. We live like him, and talk like him, and act like him; and 
then we are in harmony with God, and live as God would have us 
live. 

In the 7th and 8th chapters of Romans, you find the conflict going 
on between these two natures. Paul had that conflict. He was not 
freed from the old nature when he was converted. Read those chap- 
ters carefully, and you will find that he had the same conflict with 
the flesh that most of us have. Often we do the very thing we 
hate. 

Perhaps we have let our tempers get the better of us, and then 
have had to apologize. We ought to reckon ourselves dead, not say 
we are dead. Some have an idea that the old man is dead and cast 
out, and they are not going to have any more trouble with him. Sa- 
tan so blinds us. If the old man were dead, we would not have to 
watch him; and yet, over and over again, Christ tells the disciples 
to watch. You do not know when the old nature will come up, like 
a tiger let loose. If the old nature were dead, you would not have 
to watch it. Now if we keep the old man crucified, as we ought to, 
and put in the new man, we can walk in the light of the world; we 
need not have any dark ways. But we have to keep our eyes on 
the Master, and watch and pray. Then it is all the time peace and 
joy. You know it is impossible for a man or woman to walk in 
darkness that follows Christ. I want to call your attention to this 
one truth of the two natures; and I would like to ask if you would 
take time this week, any of you tLat are troubled about your con- 
version and look up this subject. The first ten years of my Chris- 
tian experience, I had a good many conflicts with myself; and the 
question often came up, Have I been converted? If so, how is it 
that my old temptations and desires come back? How is it I long 
sometimes to do the things I once used to do? If found, after I had 
been a Christian ten years, that God never took away my old nature. 
God gave me a new one, and the two remain. I I don't keep down 
my old man, he will come up and lead me into bondage and dark- 
ness. The question is, Have you got the new nature? Have you 
become a partaker of the Divine nature? If you have, it is a sign 
you have been born again. 

The next thing we get is a new name; and God gives us a name. 
When we are brought into the family of God, the household of faith, 
we get a new name. We are no longer sinners, but the sons of the 
42 



658 SIGXS OP THE NEW BIRTH. 

High God. We are made perfect in Christ, clothed in his garments ; 
we are made sons and daughters of God. We have a birthright, 
and it is a name. We are not only born into the family of God, but 
adopted. When we are born into the family of God, and become 
partakers of his nature, we take his name. The onl^r way to get into 
that family is to be born in; we caunot educate ourselves in or work 
our way in. It is the work of Goa that takes us in. No man until 
he is born of God can say really that he is a Christian. 

Another thing we get in the new way. We do not walk in the 
same way as before we were converted. A man or woman who pro- 
fesses Christianity and yet goes on in the old way has not been born 
again. When we are born again, we are born in a new way; and 
Christ is that way himself. We give up our way, and take his. The 
old way leads to death, the new way to life everlasting. In the old 
way, Satan leads us; in the new way the Son of God leads us. We 
are led by him, not into bondage and darkness, but into the way of 
peace and joy. A great many people tell us that they do not believe 
in the Old Testament, or in much of the New; but they believe in 
the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon on the Mount. Some say 
this because they have heard others say it; and I have met people 
who could not tell what they believed, except that it was what their 
ministers believed. They have no time to read the Word of God, 
though they have time to read all the novels of the day. Let me 
say to you people who believe in the Sermon on the Mount and 
nothing else, that we are told of a broad and a narrow way, the broad 
that leads to death, and the narrow to life eternal. Which way is 
yours, my friend? Are you in the narrow way that leadeth into life 
eternal, or in the broad way that leads to death? There are a great 
many that do not want to give up the broad way, because they like 
their own way; they do not like to give up the amusements of the 
world. There are plenty of churches in the broad way; for you can 
get almost any kind of preaching, now-a-days. They want men that 
will tell them everything is going on smoothly, that everybody will 
be saved, and the Lord is going to take them all into heaven. They 
can find that kind of preaching. A good many say: " I don't like 
that narrow, bigoted man that preaches the narrow way; I believe 
we will all be swept into heaven, whether we want to be or not. But 
some shake their heads and say they think they will be put into pur- 
gatory, and be punished perhaps a million of years. I would rather 
bow to Scripture. I can find no chance of repentance in the grave. 
But even if it were so, why not repent here? Is sin so sweet that 
you cannot give it up? The broad way is filled with unhappiness. 
God does not want us to do that which will bring ruin upon ourselves 
and upon others. If we live as God would have us, we mount 
higher and higher every year. That is taught in the Word of God. 
How is it with those who serve Satan? How dark and hard it is~ 



SIGNS OF THE NEW BIRTH. 659 

There is no praying down the broad way, though they may say 
prayers. They do not believe in conversion. Look down the two 
ways, and decide to-day which way you will take. 

With the new birth, we also get a new tongue. There is, perhaps 
as much trouble caused in the world by slandering as by drinking. 
That question was brought up at the dinner table to-day; and we 
came to the conclusion that there were about as many dark and mis- 
erable homes resulting from slander as from drink. If a person is 
born of God, he has a aew tongue, and he will not go out and slan- 
der people. If you love a person, you cannot slander him. Many 
a man has gone to his grave with a broken heart, because he has 
been slandered and lied about, perhaps by those who professed to 
be friends. When we are born of God, we get a new tongue, and 
there will be no slandering with it. The tongue that is blaspheming 
to-day may be praising God to-morrow. We get a new tongue 
when we get a new heart; and then we get a new song. No one 
can sing the song of the redemption till he has been born again. I 
do not know but a man can sing a lie as well as speak it. Now, 
though I have heard "Rock of Ages," perhaps once a day for twenty 
years, I could not start it; but I can sing in my heart just as well as 
Mr. Sankey, or anybody else. I cannot get it through these thick 
lips, but it is in my heart; and, by and by, I want to sing around the 
throne the song of Moses and the Lamb. I want to sing of him who 
redeemed me with his precious blood. Every true church is a sing- 
ing church. Such a church won't hire three or four women to do 
their singing; they burst right out singing. And by and by you will 
see them on resurrection morning, coming from their sepulchres 
singing. This is the only thing we have heard of that they do in 
heaven. 

The next thing we get is new food. If a man is converted, he is 
not going to live on the New York Ledger, and dime novels. I be- 
lieve that one of the things that are poisoning the people is this mis- 
erable stuff. If we are born of God, we want better than that. 
When we have read the Bible through three or four times — and 
when we have done that, we will find it has spoiled nearly every 
other book for us. Another thing that a man gets is new friends. 
I thank God every day for the friends he has given me. 1 cannot- 
go into a city or town but the best people in it gather around me. 
Thank God for Christian friends. My friends, if you want true 
friends, you want the friends of Jesus Christ. When I received 
Christ, I thought I got a great boon. I thought it was the best gift 
I ever received; and I used to wonder if he would continue that 
precious to me. But I can say without exaggeration that he has 
been a thousand times more to me than I thought he would be. If 
you want to know how to become a Christian, just receive Christ; 
and you will get everything in him. If you will let him into your 



660 THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. 

heart, he will bless you and save you. There is the new birth, the 
new creation, the new nature. Have you got them? Then the new 
name — have you got that? Can you say you are a child of God? 
Have you got into the new way? Have you got the new song in 
your mouth? Are you living on this heavenly food? Have you got 
new friends? May God help us to get all these things, and this will 
be the best Sabbath you have spent up to this time. 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

You that have been here the last three Sunday mornings remem- 
ber that 1 have been talking about Christ. Three weeks ago, this 
morning, we were looking at Christ in the Old Testament, and how 
the prophecy was fulfilled in regard to his coming; and the next 
Sabbath we were talking about his birth: and last Sunday of John, 
the forerunner to introduce him; and you remember that I have 
spoken here, during the last three months, of his birth, his life, his 
miracles, his parables, his death, his burial, his resurrection and his 
ascension. Now, this morning I want to talk about his coming 
again. (A voice: "Amen!") There is more said in the Epistles about 
the Lord Jesus Christ returning to this earth than there is about 
baptism. There is no denomination, no church scarcely, but that 
lays great stress upon that order; and God forbid that I should say 
anything that would give you to understand that I look upon it 
lightly. I think that every order that the Lord has given us, and 
ever commanded us to do, ought to be carried out literally; but we 
find that this doctrine has been, as it were, laid aside by the churches 
sometimes — they have forgotten all about it. But I don't know 
anything that will quicken the Church to-day so much as this pre- 
cious doctrine of our Lord's return. (A voice: "Amen.") If I read 
my Bible correctly, in the Epistles baptism is referred to thirteen 
times and the Lord's return upwards of fifty times. So that it is not 
an unscriptural idea that I want to bring before you this morning. 
If the Word of God doesn't teach it, my friends, don't you receive 
it; but let us be ready and willing to bow to Scripture, because we 
read that all Scripture is given by inspiration; that we are not to be 
one-sided Christians, and take up one truth and harp on that all the 
time; but we are to take up the whole Word of God. 

Just turn to the 2nd epistle of Peter, the 1st chapter and 19th 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 661 

verse: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye 
do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: 
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any pri- 
vate interpretation." No private interpretation. It is for the whole 
Church of God — the whole family of God. "For the prophecy came 
not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 

Now you know Gabriel came down to announce the conception of 
Christ, and angels came to announce his birth: angels came to an- 
nounce his resurrection; angels came to announce his return. When 
those apostles stood there gazing up into heaven, two angels dropped 
down there. " And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed 
thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 
And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, 
they said unto them: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? 
He is not here, but is risen; remember how he spake unto you when 
he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered 
into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise 
again." Yes, thank God, he is coming again, just as he went. (A voice: 
"Amen!") We are going to see him in person; he that left this world 
blessing it — for that is the way he left this world, blessing it — is com- 
ing back to bless his own church and to receive them that have 
waited for his return. If you read the 26th chapter of Matthew, the 
64th verse, you will find that it was just this very thing that caused 
his death. When the high priests asked him who he was, and if he 
was the true Messiah, what does he say: "Jesus saith unto him, 
Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see 
the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in 
the clouds of heaven." That was enough. The moment they heard 
that, they accused him of blasphemy and condemned him to death, 
just because he said he was coming again. "Ye shall see me coming 
in the clouds of glory." 

Now, let me say that this doctrine has suffered a good deal from 
those who claim to be its friends, because they set a time — a certain 
day — for his coming. Now, we read here in Matthew, 24th chapter 
and 30th verse, that no man knows when he shall come. " But of 
that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but 
my Father only." It seems to me that the devil is all the time try- 
ing to counterfeit these precious truths, so that the mass of Chris- 
tians will not believe it. Now, there it is clearly taught that the day 
and the hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven. Now, 
when a man comes and tells you that he knows when Christ is com- 
ing — that he is coming next year, or in 1980, or in any par- 
ticular year or at any particular time, he has got no truth for that 
assertion. " The day and the hour knoweth no man." I think if we 



662 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

knew the day and the hour of his coming, we wouldn't be watching 
for his coming. All through the Scripture we are told to watch for 
his coming. 

"Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not 
the Son of man cometh." And then we are also taught that his 
coming shall be sudden. We find in that 24th chapter, 35th verse: 
"But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were 
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day 
that Noe entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came 
and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man 
be." Now, we have that order that the time of his coming is un- 
known; that he is coming unexpectedly. In another place it says 
that he is coming like a thief in the night. He is coming suddenly; 
but let us bear in mind that he is coming, because that word has 
gone out. 

Now, I can imagine some of you say, "He is coming to us when 
we die." But that is not what is taught here. Death is not the com- 
ing of the Lord. Just turn to the 21st chapter of John, 18th verse: 
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou gird- 
est thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst; but when thou shalt 
be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird 
thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This spake ,he, sig- 
nifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had 
spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me." Now, the thought I 
want to call your attention to is this; that Christ didn't look to his 
death and his coming as one and the same thing. He kept them 
distinct. His coming is one thing; his death is another. You and 
I may be summoned away before Christ comes; but I am not taught 
anywhere in the Scripture to look for death. That is not in the 
Scripture. We are told to look for the coming of the Lord. Now, 
Peter wanted to know what John should do. "Jesus saith unto him, 
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou 
me." That is, you are to follow me,and not look to see what this 
disciple or that disciple is going to do. "Then went this saying 
abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die; yet 
Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry 
till I come, what is that to thee?" There is a difference between death 
and his coming. Now, I think that we make a great mistake in say- 
ing that death is the coming of the Lord. Death is one thing; and 
the coming of the Lord is another. Why, the year of jubilee will 
burst upon this world by and by; and we shall come up out of our 
graves. That is distinct and separate from death. It will be all life 
then. We shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Enoch was 
one type of life, he was caught up into heaven. Elijah was trans- 
lated from earth to heaven, in a fiery chariot. These two represent- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 663 

ed the first two dispensations; and so Christ, who represented the 
^hird, has gone up; and when he comes these bodies shall come forth 
from their graves. We are not going to die. If the world remains, 
if we wait until Christ comes, we are going to defy death. Death 
has been conquered, and by and by, I don't know when, in the full- 
ness of time, we shall rise victorious to glory. He shall come an$ 
set up his kingdom on earth. As we read in the prophecy of Dan- 
iel, that stone cut out of the mountains without hands is growing, 
and it is going to fill the whole earth. God has decreed it. 

Now, I think it is decreed in Thessalonians, and if you have your 
Bibles here I should like to have you turn to Thessalonians, because 
this passage is written, just as it were, to the young converts. Every 
chapter in that first Epistle is a sermon to young converts about his 
coming. " For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of tbe archangel, and with the trump of God; 
and the dead in Christ shall rise first; Then we which are alive and re- 
main shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet 
the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Where- 
fore comfort one another with these words." That is the comfort of 
the church; not that we are agoing to die, but that the Lord may 
come at any time and take us away into that bridal chamber. Now, 
it is said that his coming in judgment on the earth to dash the na- 
tions to pieces that have disobeyed him, is one coming, and that his 
■coming to take his bride away is altogether different. So his first 
coming is in the air; and that is when we shall be caught up to meet 
the Lord in the air. a For the Lord himself shall descend from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Then, over 
here, in the 5th chapter of John, 25th verse, "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. 
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to 
have life in himself. And hath given him authority to execute 
judgment also, because He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this, 
for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall 
hear his voice. And shall come forth." 

And by and by these slumbering bodies shall be awakened by the 
trump of God; and they shall come forth from their graves, and fly 
to meet the King of Glory. " And they shall come forth, they 
that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." Now, you take 
a strong piece of magnet, and then have little pieces of iron or steel, 
mixed up in some sawdust; and just hold that magnet over it. 
Every pirticle of steel and iron will fly to meet that magnet. So 
when He shall come upon the earth, every one of his chosen shall 
fly to meet him. The hour is coming when the trump shall sound; 



664 THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. 

the Lord of Hosts shall come. Oh, Christ is going to come. Let 
us be waiting and watching and praying that He may come quickly. 

Now, there are three great facts taught in Scripture. First, that 
Christ is coming again. The next, that the Holy Ghost was to come- 
on us here, in the world. Now, do you believe that this assembly 
would have been drawn together for the past three months, if it had 
not been for the power of the Holy Ghost? Do you believe that men 
would have been converted, if it had not been for the power of the 
Holy Ghost. Is there any eloquence, any power in man that can 
turn the whole current of men's lives; that can transform a poor, 
miserable drunkard, one who has made his home a hell, who has 
beaten and abused his wife. Can any eloquence, any power in man, 
I say, do that unless it is by and through the power of the Holy 
Ghost? The next great fact that this Bible teaches is, that he is 
coming again. What is it that makes the 14th chapter of John so 
sweet? You know there is probably not a chapter in the whole 
Bible that is read so much as that one in John. What makes it so 
sweet? why, because it tells us he shall come again. " Let not 
your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God; believe also in me. 
In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would 
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Then what does 
he say? "And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again 
and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.'* 
That is the key-note to the 14th chapter of John — not that he is going 
to send death, or send some angel after us; but that he is coming 
himself. He himself is coming back after his bride. He came down 
here to get a bride, and the world rose up and cast him out and said 
he shouldn't have a bride. Then he went up above, and has been 
there these 1800 years gathering out his bride. Some one says, you 
can get some idea of how magnificent these mansions are by the time 
he takes to get them ready. 

Now, there is no place in the Scripture where we are told to watch 
for signs — the rebuilding of Babylon, or the returning of the Jews 
to Jerusalem; but all through Scripture we are told what to do — 
just to watch for him; just to be waiting for our Lord's return from 
heaven. In Paul's Epistle to the Philippians we read: " For our con- 
versation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the 
Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be 
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working 
whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." " Looking 
for our Lord and Savior." And that's the attitude of every true be- 
liever in this world, with loins girded, lamps trimmed and burning, 
watching for the coming of the bridegroom. Thank God, he will 
say when Christ comes, " Behold, the bridegroom cometh." Now, 
he says again here, in the 2d chapter of Titus and the 13th verse: 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHEIST. 6ftb 

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Savior Jesus Christ." 

Now, if you will just take your Bibles, a great many of you will 
find that, over and over again, the Lord has said that we are to be 
waiting and watching for his coming. The last prayer in Scripture 
— what is it? " Come quickly, Lord Jesus." And that ought to be 
the cry of every child of God: " Come quickly, Lord Jesus." Think 
of the war that is bursting upon the nations across the waters. Think 
of the blood and carnage. Think of the widows and orphan chil- 
dren, of the suffering that is going to be in those nations. But, 
thank God, when he comes there will be no more war. (A voice: 
"Amen.") There will be no more suffering. There will be peace. 
Then, in the 13th chapter of Mark, the 32d verse, it says: "But of 
that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which 
are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch 
and pray for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is 
a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority 
to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the por- 
ter to watch. Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the Mas- 
ter of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock- 
crowing, or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." He may come in 
the morning; he may come in the evening; he may come at the cock- 
crowing. In another place, Luke 17th chapter, it says: " Two 
women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken and the 
other left . Two men shall be in the field ; the one shall be taken and the 
other left." Christ is going to take out his chosen from among the 
scoffers. By and by, he is going to separate his children, and the scoff- 
ers and the workers of iniquity. They may scoff and laugh now; but I 
tell you, by and by, there will be nothing left of them. My friends, you 
will find it to be true that every portion of the Old Testament re- 
ferring to Christ's coming has been fulfilled. Now, people say this 
is so wonderful, so beyond all reason, so beyond all common sense, 
that we cannot lay hold of it. Now, his second coming cannot be so 
wonderful as his first coming. If a man had stood up and said that 
Christ was going to be born of a virgin; that he was going to be 
laid in a manger; that he was going to be the son of a carpenter, and 
going to work at the carpenter's trade himself (as he did), there 
wouldn't have been a man in the world who would have believed him. 
" Oh, that is figurative," they would have said. And that's just the 
way men talk now, and just figure away everything. The Scripture 
was literally fulfilled. He came, just the way that the prophets said 
he would come; and once, as I said the other morning, he had to 
ride into Jerusalem, because it was prophesied that he should. Every- 
thing was fulfilled. Now, this prophesy in the New Testament 
about his coming, in my mind, my friends, I haven't the slightest 



666 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

doubt but that it is going to be fulfilled. That same Jesus that was 
crucified at Mount Calvary, we shall see at Mount Calvary again — 
see his hands and his feet pierced with the nails; and it is a question 
in my mind whether the Jews will not receive him when he comes 
back. They will receive him as the true Messiah, and take up the 
glorious news of the coming of the Messiah, and spread it around 
the world. 

A great many say: " This doctrine of the second coming of Christ 
cannot affect me. He can't come in my day. A great many things 
have got to take place before he comes. The thousand years of the 
millennium have got to come before he does." That is just the way 
I used to talk. " Why," I used to say, " He can't come in my day. 
Don't you know that there is to be one thousand years of the mil- 
lennium; that righteousness must increase and wickedness must de- 
crease before he comes?" Ah, my friends, but since I have got a 
little better acquainted with the Word of God, I find that is not 
God's plan; that is not what is taught here. Why, just see what 
he says: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall 
come." That doesn't sound like the millennium, does it? "For 
men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." " Boast- 
ers." There is some boasting done here in Boston. " Without nat- 
ural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, de- 
spisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers 
of pleasure more than lovers of God." I think we are coming pretty 
near those days now. " Having a form of godliness, but denying the 
power thereof; from such turn away. For of this sort are they which 
creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led 
away with divers lusts; ever learning, and never able to come to 
the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood 
Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, rep- 
robate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further, for 
their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. But 
thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, 
long-suffering, charity, patience. Persecutions, afflictions, which 
came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions 
I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all 
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil 
men andsedu«ers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being de- 
ceived." The fact is, my fr%hds, the world is going to destruction; 
and what God wants is to have us come out from it. " Wherefore 
come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and 
touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a 
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the 
Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, 
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, per- 



THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 667 

footing holiness in the fear of God." And he is now redeeming his 
children, taking them out from the world; and the sons of Light 
ought to grow stronger and stronger; but the wicked men are wax- 
ing worse and worse. 

When we read over here about the coming of the Son of God, that 
it shall be as in the days of Noah. How was it then? Were men 
then praising God, living for God's glory? Just see what it says: 
" But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son 
of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were 
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day 
that Noe entered into the ark. And knewnot until the flood came, and 
took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." 
There will be drunkenness in the world when He comes. Don't 
flatter yourselves, my dear friends, that the world is going to be bet- 
ter and better. The world has not got better. It may be that the 
children of God are getting stronger and stronger; but this world 
is like a wrecked vessel. It is going to pieces on the rocks, and 
God wants you to do everything you can to rtscue your souls. Now, 
some people say, "O don't preach that! You will drive away peo- 
ple by preaching that doctrine." I don't know of anything that 
will quicken men; I don't know of anything that will take the men 
of this world out of their bonds and stocks quicker than that our 
Lord is coming again. The way it looks to me is this: Here is a 
vessel going to pieces on the rocks. God puts a life-boat in my 
hands, and says: " Rescue every man you can. Get them out of 
this wrecked vessel." So God wants us to get our family out of the 
wrecked world into the ark of safety, as Noah did his family, and 
have them in Christ; and if ihey are in Christ, they are safe. 

Let me call your attention to 2nd Peter, 3d chapter, and 3d and 
4th verses: "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last 
days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is 
the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things 
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." Are we 
not just living in those days? Just look at the scoifer saying 
" Where is the promise of his coming? Everything is moving on. 
The sun, moon and stars are shining just the same as they have been 
from the creation. Where is the promise of his coming? Why, we 
are going on to perfection! Everything is growing better and bet- 
■er." But that isn't what this Word teaches. It teaches that the 
heavens shall roll up like a scroll. He wants us to get into Christ, 
and if we are in him we are saved. Just turn to the 48th verse of 
the 24th chapter of Matthew: " But, and if" that evil servant shall say 
in his heart, my lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to smite 
his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; the lord 
of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and 
in an hour that he is not aware of; and shall cut him asunder, and 



668 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 

appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping 
and gnashing of teeth." 

There is another warning. I have only time to just touch on this 
wonderful subject. The Bible is full of them. I want to urge these 
young converts to begin and study the whole Word of God. I don't 
want them to be hoggish, and take up one part only,but the whole Word 
of God; so that at these times you may know just what you are to 
receive and what you are to reject, and that you have got a reason 
for the hope that is within you. 

Now I want to call your attention to another thing; that is, that every 
time you go to the Lord's table, you will go there not only to show 
forth his death, but what else? "For as often as ye eat this bread 
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." How 
many that go to the Lord's table ever think of his return ? Now, I 
will tell you where men make a great mistake. Triey go to the 
Lord's table with dread. I used to dread communion Sundays — a 
weak from this Sunday, I am told, is oommunion Sunday. I used 
to dread it. We used to have it once in three months. Now it is 
once a month; and I hope we will have it every Sabbath. I used to 
go there thinking of my own sins, and the short-comings of the com- 
mittee; and it was most unpleasant. But I found out that I was to 
go there to remember hira; and now it is a place of rejoicing. I try 
to think just as little of myself when I go to the Lord's table as I 
can. There isn't any place in the Scripture where you are told to 
examine yourselves when you go there; but you are to go there to 
remember the Lord, and that he is coming back again. That is 
what we are to think about. We are to think of his death until he 
comes. 

But then I can imagine that some of you say that, if I preach this 
doctrine, that the world is going to be destroyed, that grace has been 
a failure. Now let me say, right here, that grace has not been a 
failure. Man has failed to lay hold of it; and the world has spurned 
the Word of God, just as "the Jews did Christ, years ago. They 
would not receive him. Now, the grace of God is over all the world, 
and the world has rejected it. Thank God, here and there is one 
that will lay hold of it; and if men won't take hold of it, they ought 
not to complain that God is going to punish them for it. Because, 
when he sent his prophets, they killed them; they crucified his son,, 
and would not receive the Holy Ghost; and they trampled his Word 
under their feet. Why, you cannot say he is unjust. If a man says, 
"I hate the grace of God, the gift of God; I don't want the salva- 
tion of God through Jesus Christ;" if a man wants to be excused 
from the marriage feast of the Lamb, why, don't go off and say grace 
has been a failure; but they have failed to lay hold of it. 

Now, there is another thing; that when Christ comes we are going 
to be reunited with our loved ones- There are a good many here in 



THE SECOND 'COMING OF CHRIST. 669 

this congregation that have got more friends in heaven than on earth. 
Some of you mothers have got more children there than down here. 
Yes, there is a better day for us, my friends. Glory and honor to 
God; Christ is coming back; and I am going to see my loved ones 
again. I an just waiting and watching for the hour when I shall 
hear that trump sound; and I shall be released to meet those loved 
ones; and those that are with me, that are in Christ, shall go up to- 
gether, and we shall be forever with the Lord. Oh, how we ought to 
hail that day, and how the church ought to be watching! Oh, that 
God would wean us from the world, that we should not have our 
hearts set on things down here, but on things above, where Christ is. 

I want to call your attention to a few passages of Scripture. In 
1st Corinthians, 11th chapter, 25th and 26th verses, it says : 
"After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had sup- 
ped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do 
ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye 
eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till 
he come." In Luke, 19th chapter, 13th verse, he tells us to use our 
talents until he comes. We must fight the good fight of faith until 
he comes. "And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten 
pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." In 1st Timothy, 
6th chapter, 12-14 verses: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold 
on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a 
good profession before many witnesses. 1 give thee charge in the 
sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, 
who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. That thou 
keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appear- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ." In 2d Thessalonians, 1st chap- 
ter, 7th verse: "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when 
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
angels." In James, 8th chapter, 8th verse: "Be ye also patient; 
establish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." In 
2d Timothy, 4th chapter, 8th verse, we are to wait for the crown of 
righteousness: " Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that 
day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear- 
ing." In 1st Timothy, 2d chapter, 5th to 8th verses: " For there is 
one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus 
Christ; who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. 
Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the 
the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith 
and verity." 

"I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, 
without wrath and doubting." In 1st Thessalonians, 4th chapter, 
13th and 1.4th verses: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even 



670 A PERSONAL STATEMENT BY MR. MOODY. 

as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died 
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, 
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord 
shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel 
and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together 
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these 
words." 

We are to wait for Satan to be bound until he comes. Oh, he's 
going to be bound that day, and Christ, who has a right to take the 
throne of David, is going to take it. Let us pray that he may come 
quickly. Let that be the burden of our prayers. 



A PERSONAL STATEMENT BY MR. MOODY. 

Shortly before the close of the services in Boston, Mr. Moody ad- 
dressed a noon-day meeting upon the financial aspect of the Revival 
work, and the compensation the Evangelists were to receive. He 
said: 

To-morrow, at all the meetings, there will be a collection taken up 
for the expenses of the meetings, as a thank offering; and we would 
like to have every man give as the Lord has prospered him, or as his 
heart is inclined to give. We do not want a man to give unless he 
gives his heart with it. We do not want any one going off com- 
plaining that there has been too much money spent. If you do not 
want to give, do not give. The amount desired is $30,000 — $20,000 
to defray expenses up to the time of closing the present series of 
meetings; and the remainder to secure the use of the Tabernacle 
for Gospel purposes for a year. I could not stand here to ask for 
this collection, if I was to carry off any part of it. There have been 
some very exaggerated rumors that we were employed to come 
for so many thousand dollars— $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, or even 
$30,000. Now let me say that this money is to go to D. E. Snow 
of the Tremont Bank, who is Treasurer of the committee that have 
put up the building and have paid all the bills; and not one dollar of it 
is coming to us. We not only raised money enough to pay the ex- 



A PERSONAL STATEMENT BY ME. MOODY. 671 

penses in Chicago, but $80,000 to pay the debt on the Young Men's 
Christian Association. Then some one writes to an infidel paper 
that Moody and Sankey had put the money in their pockets — pretty 
good pay for three months' work. We find a good many people be- 
lieve it. If we took money from the public, it would be well to re- 
port what we did with it, and how much we received. As there 
never has been any collection for us, and we are not employed by 
the public or any committee, I do not know that it is necessary for 
me to say anything to justify myself in the way I have been em- 
ployed the last sixteen years. But when I gave up my business six- 
teen years ago, after three months of the severest struggle of m} r 
life, as to whether I should go for dollars and cents or for souls, from 
that day to this I have no more lived for money than I have lived for 
water. My friends have blamed me, because I have not laid aside 
something for my family. 

Some of them insisted upon my wife having some money; and 
they bought her a home in the country, and the rumor is that it cost 
$30,000, and $30,000 to furnish it. The home cost $3500 and there 
have been some improvements; and the furniture and everything 
cost $10,000. It belongs to my wife and children. My father died 
at the early age of forty-one, and if I die to-morrow, there will be a 
roof over the heads of my wife and children. (Voices, " Thank 
God!") Some one said, in the inquiry-room, a certain man would 
not come because I paid $4000 for a horse. Take off $3750, and 
you will find it right. As far as dollars and cents are concerned, I 
could make more in one night than I have made in Boston. 1 have 
been offered $500 a night for a lecture. I have been offered $200, 
$300, $500 a night to lecture, when I might talk an hour and then 
go to a comfortable hotel; but as it is now, I work at the Tabernacle 
all day and talk till midnight with inquirers, and when I am done 
have hardly strength enough to go to my room. If you want to at- 
tack me, do not attack me there. I have weaknesses; but they are 
not in that direction. If I had come for money, it would have been 
in some other work. (Applause.) I detest that applause. The 
royalty on the hymn books amounted last year to $68,000; but it all 
went to three trustees, and not one dollar came into the hands of Mr. 
Sankey or myself. It belongs to us as much as the income of your 
business belongs to you ; but we give it up. We do not want one dollar 
of your money in Boston. Give it to the Lord, as long as you please. 
[ would rather live on a crust of bread than have people think we 
came for your money. If any young man here wants to go into the 
work of the Lord for money, 1 advise him not to do it. Now I don't 
want any one to go off and say that we preach for nothing; for we 
do not. We preach for souls; and the Lord takes care of us. I 
never have known what it is to want money in the sixteen years I 



672 A PERSONAL STATEMENT BY MR. MOOCT, 

have been at work for him. The Lord has taken good care of me; 
and I have not known what it is to want. 

Taking his Bible, Mr. Moody read from the 2d chapter of Colos- 
sians, 6th, 7th and 8th verses: "As ye have therefore received Christ 
Jesus the Lord, so walk ye with him: rooted and built up in him, 
and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding 
therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through 
philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudi- 
ments of the world, and not after Christ." 

And from the 3d chapter, 6th to 17th verses: "For which things' 
sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. In 
the which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them. But 
now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, 
filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, 
seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have 
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the im- 
age of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, 
circumcision nor un circumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; 
but Christ is all, and in all. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, 
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, 
meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one 
another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ for- 
gave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, 
which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule 
in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be 
ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wis- 
dom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." 

In commenting on the passages read, he said: As ye have there- 
fore received him, walk ye in him. No man ever received Christ 
that did not receive him in humility, when pride, self-righteousness 
and egotism were gone. As you receive him, walk with him. If we 
walk with him as we have received him, then we are walking as God 
would have us walk; then we are deep rooted. We want to get 
these young converts rooted, not in themselves, but in Christ. You 
find surface Christians, when there is some great blast of temptation, 
go down. If we are rooted in Christ and built up in him, we have 
strength and power. Let us pray that we may have these seven 
things, that we may realize that we have received Christ, walk as we 
have received him, be rooted, built up. and complete in him, bur- 
ied in him, and risen in him. 



ADDRESS BY MR. SANKEY, ON PRAISE. 

Before we proceed, I wish to say a word in regard to the subject 
of Praise. We find in Golossians 3d: 16th: " Let the word of Christ 
dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one an- 
other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace 
in your hearts to the Lord." The subject of praise seems to be iden- 
tified with singing in the minds of the people. This meeting has 
been announced as a praise meeting, and every one in that connec- 
tion believes that we are to praise God in singing. Let me say, 
here, that I believe there are more ways of praising God than by 
singing hymns; there are many ways by which we can praise God, 
and it is not exclusively confined to singing of hymns. There is an- 
other kind of singing, which I observe here in Boston and elsewhere. 
It is put under the head of praise, while there is not praise in it at 
all; singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 
Now this question of solo singing, or singing alone, as we have been 
doing here and elsewhere, I conceive that this kind of singing is not 
thoroughly understood by most of the people. That is to say, our 
understanding of it and theirs are not alike. If I should come here 
and sing a solo, as we shall have to-night some song sung in that 
way, there is no praise in that. And in our prayers on this platform, 
we often ask God's blessing upon the singing of praises; and we join 
together to sing his praise. We scarcely ever ask a blessing on the 
preaching of his word in song; the mission of preaching and teaching 
in song is not understood fully. I believe that the hymns, " Jesus 
of Nazareth Passeth By," and "The Ninety and Nine" and " What 
Shall the Harvest Be?" do not contain a word of praise; and yet they 
are sung in all the meetings all over the country. 

1 wish people would get the distinction, that one class of hymns 
are to teach, and the other, such as "Praise God from whom all bles- 
sings flows" and " Jesus lover of my soul," are hymns in which the 
whole congregation can join in praising God. But for one man to 
sit here and try to praise God for this whole audience, would be a 
strange performance. Perhaps, many wonder why I have sung alone 
to praise God. It is because I thought that, by these sweet gospel 
hymns, I might reach some heart in the great congregations. I thank 
God that he has blessed his message, as sung in these great congre- 
gations. God has been blessing the message when it has been sung 
alone. For instance this hymn, " What shall the harvest be?" there 
673 43 



674 MR. SANKEY ON PRAISE. 

is no praise in that. Not long since, in a meeting that we were 
holding, a man came staggering through the door and was directed 
into the gallery of the building — there were galleries in the building 
where we were holding our meetings; and he staggered down 
through the aisle, until he came to a seat near one of the large posts 
that held up the building; and his testimony afterwards was, that 
while he was sitting there in a drunken stupor — he just wandered in 
off the street, a poor man lost through strong drink — he leaned his 
head up against the post. And when the people came in with their 
happy faces and joyful looks, he said: " This is no place for me, I 
will go; I have no friends or home, or friends to help me; I will go." 
And he attempted to get up and go out of the building. But just 
then the little hymn, "What shall the Harvest Be?" was given out 
from the pulpit, and the first strain of the hymn caught the attention 
of that poor man and he sat down, as he says in his testimony; and 
when it came to that verse, which said: 

" Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 

Sowing the seed of eternal shame," 

he said that line went as a dagger through his heart. He said: 
"That is me; that is what I have been doing, sowing the 'seed of a 
tarnished name;' my name is gone, and I am 'sowing the seed of 
eternal shame.' " God sent those lions down into the heart of that 
poor man, and he got up at the conclusion of the hymn and wan- 
dered out into the dark streets of the city. And, as his testimony 
goes, he went to a saloon to try if he could drown the thought of 
those lines from his heart; and as he says: "I went to a bar, I at- 
tempted to drink, I could see written on the walls of that bar- 
room, ' What shall the Harvest be?' " And he went to his home 
that night; and as he lay upon his bed in his room he could see in 
the darkness and gloom of that room, on the walls that sentence, 
" What shall the Harvest be?" It stayed in the man's heart; it 
brought him back to the meeting; in the course of three or four days, 
he found his way to the inquiry-room, and there a man of God met 
him, prayed with him, led him in the right way; and this day he is a 
bright and shining light, in yonder city. He came to me one day, 
just before I came from the city in which he is in, and he read me a 
letter. He said: "Here is a letter I want to show you from my lit- 
tle girl. My wife and I have been separated; for eight years I 
haven't seen them ; but my little girl writes me this letter. They 
heard the Lord had found me in this great city." Then he went on 
to read the letter, and the tears rolled down the strong man's cheeks. 
He said: " My wife has never ceased to pray for me, and this dear 
little girl of mine, she says: 'Papa, I knew that you would come 
back to us some time; I knew that the Lord would find you, fori 
have been praying for you all these years.' " And as the tears rolled 
down the man's cheeks he said, "I thank God that Jesus has found 



MK. SANKEY ON PRAISE. 675 

me!" Jesus used that little hymn to find him yonder, in that great 
congregation ; and I bless God that he is finding souls here. I Get 
testimonials almost every day from some poor soul who has received 
the message of God's love through these little gospel hymns; and 
therefore I want the Christians to have faith that God can bless this 
way of delivering his message of love; and then we will all join more 
heartily in the days to come in singing the story of his love. 

Oh, how we might go to the bed-ridden and outcast in this great 
city and sing a song for Jesus Christ! If you cannot go to preach 
to them, what a blessing would accompany the singing of one of 
these sweet Gospel hymns to those who don't come to these meetings 
at all. May God give us hearts thus to do. If we cannot preach, 
let us go and sing for Jesus Christ. He has given thousands of you 
voices, better voices than mine or those upon the platform, so that 
you can go and carry this message of his love. How many we have 
known to have been won to his love, and to the home above. May 
God bless this little word exhorting in this direction, and give us an 
understanding of the mission there is in singing these Gospel truths 
alone. But now, before we go further, I think we will have that 
hymn of which I have been speaking, "What shall the Harvest be?" 
if you will allow me to sing it to-night. I hope Christians will pray 
that God may bless it to some poor wanderer here to-night. 

Mr Sankey now announced that he would sing "The Ninety and 
Nine," but before doing so he wanted to tell something about the 
hymn. While Mr. Moody and he were going to the north of Scot- 
land, during their tour in Great Britain, he felt greatly the need of a 
new hymn. One day in Edinburgh he bought at a news-stand a num- 
ber of papers, and in the corner of one of them, a religious paper, he 
found the^words, without any name attached to them. He remarked 
to Mr. Mood^s- that it was just what was wanted, and during the next 
day the little^phant formed itself in his mind. Then there was a 
great meeting in the city; and while it was in progress, the impulse 
came upon him to sing that song. The music had not yet been writ- 
ten, but he seatea, himself at the organ, hardly knowing how it was 
all to come out, strid sang. A few days later he received from a lady 
this note: "I thank you, sir, for having sung my deceased sister's 
words. My sister wrote those words five years ago. She has been 
in heaven four years, and I thank you for singing them." This 
hymn, Mr. Sankey continued, has been peculiarly blessed. The 
lady from whom the note was received lives at Bridge End, Melrose, 
Scotland. Mr. Sankey concluded these remarks by hoping that the 
hymn would again be blessed. 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

CHRIST THE GOOD SAMARITAN. LUKE XI 25. 

In this picture we get the whole gospel. Jerusalem was the city 
of peace. Jericho was a city condemned, and from one to the other 
was all the way down hill — an easy road to go, as the unfortunate 
man thought when he started on his journey. But he fell among 
thieves, who stripped him and left him half dead, and the priest and 
the Levite passed him by. These two men represent a large class 
of people. We can imagine the priest asking himself, " Am I my 
brother's keeper?" and complaining, "What did he want to go 
down there for, anyway? Why didn't he stay at home? He was a 
great deal better off in Jerusalem — he might have known something- 
would happen to him." Some people think they have done their 
duty when they blame the poor for their poverty, and the unfortunate 
for the accidents which happen to them. 

There is another class who always begin to philosophise the minute 
they see any suffering. "Why does God have these things? Why 
does he have sin and poverty in the world, I would like to know. 
He needn't have it. He could just as well have made a world with- 
out it." But here comes the good Samaritan; he does more than 
pity and philosophise; he helps, gives oil, and lifts the poor fellow 
on his beast. He is not afraid to touch him. He don't stop to ask 
whether he is Jew or Gentile, or just what he is going to do with the 
man if he takes him away from there. Now a great many people 
ask us, "What are you going to do with these young converts 
when you get them? Where will you put them — into what church 
— Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal? " " Well, we don't know; we have 
not thought of that; we are trying to get them out of the ditch first." 
" Oh, well then, we don't want to have anything to do with it; we 
want it to be done decently and in order, if we are going to have a 
hand in it." 

These people are no Samaritans; they won't have any thing to do 
with the poor fellows by the wayside if they cannot dispose of them 
ever afterwards to suit themselves. Let us not condemn those who 
676 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 67? 

have fallen into the ditch. Christ is our Good Samaritan; He has 
done for us, and tells us to do for others. 

CREATE A CLEAN HEART IN ME, O GOD. PS. Ill 10. 

It seems as if here is where we might well stop and say a word* 
Is our heart clean in the sight of God? Has he renewed a right 
spirit within us? Do we show that in our home, in our daily life, in 
our business, and in our contact with others? If wo do not, it 
seems to me it is better to be praying for ourselves than for others, 
that the world may see that we have been with God's Spirit. If we 
are a great way from Christ in all our ways, our words will be cold 
and empty, and we cannot reach the world. There is power enough 
in this room to move all New York if we had the right spirit and 
clean hearts. A friend of mine told me he had been preaching some 
time without seeing any results in his church, and he began to cry 
to God that he might have a blessing in his church. He said weeks 
went on and the answer didn't come, and he felt as if he must either 
have a blessing or give up the ministry. He must have souls or die, 
and he said that on one Sunday he threw himself on his knees in his 
study and cried to God: " Oh! God, break this heart of mine and 
give me a contrite spirit." Just at this moment he heard a faint rap 
at the door, and opening it, his little child, four years old, entered. 
She had heard her father's prayer, and she said, " Father, I wish 
you would pray for me, I want a clean heart." "And," said he, 
" God broke my heart, and at the next meeting there were forty in- 
quirers, after that one sermon." Oh, that our hearts maybe tender, 
and may we know what it is to have broken hearts and contrite 
spirits. 

GOD'S POWER TO SAVE THE DRUNKARD. JER. XXxii: 17. 

"Oh, Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the 
earth by thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there is noth- 
ing too hard for thee." 

Mr. Moody said he had taken that chapter to every place where he 
had been. He tried to find a substitute, but had never succeeded. 
He then said: 

It's just what we want to give the key-note to our meetings. Many 
of us look about and see so many wretched and wicked people that 
we become disheartened. But it's as easy for God to save every 
drunkard and infidel in New York as it is for him to turn his hand 
over. Think of this earth that God has made, with its mountains 
and rivers! Some one has said it is only a ball thrown from the 
hand of God, and another that the stars and the moon are only the 
fringe of his garments. If God can do these great things, think you 



678 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

he can't save drunkards? If he could speak worlds into existence, 
can't he save dead souls? I have more hope of these prayer meet- 
ings than of any others. But if we don't get a hold of God here we 
won't anywhere. I believe that God answers prayers. If we ask a 
fish, he won't give us a stone. Some have said these meetings will 
pass away and do no good. But it won't be so if God is with 
us. The late war taught men how to pray. It seems to me that 
some of the best work I ever saw was among the soldiers. Those 
boys away from their mothers, how many prayers were uttered for 
them, and how many were converted! I well remember a young 
lieutenant from Indiana. In one of our meetings, when we had been 
speaking of mothers' prayers, he got up and said the remarks re- 
minded him of letters he had received from his mother, expressing 
great anxiety about his soul. He had told her he would come to 
Christ after the war; but she reminded him he might never see that 
time. Another letter came from his home, and that mother was dead. 
And with the tears trickling down his cheeks, that noble young man 
told his tale, and came to know his Savior. Now we come to-day to 
call upon the Lord for a great blessing to rest upon this mighty 
city. 

A RAINY DAY PRAYER MEETING. — PS. ciii. 

There are five precious clauses in this Psalm, viz: " He forgiveth 
all thine iniquities;" "He healeth all thy diseases;" "He redeemeth 
thy life from destruction," and "He crown eth thee with loving kind- 
ness." Christianity is better than anything that the world can give. 
It satisfies us. This is what wealth cannot do. The crowns of 
Europe cannot give the peace and contentment that come from the 
Crown of Life. I like these rainy-day prayer meetings. It costs us 
something to get here. 



DISOBEDIENCE. 

All the trouble in the world originates in this little word. It is 
the cause of all misery, and is the open door through which it comes. 
It was there that Adam fell; God told him that he shouldn't do a 
certain thing, and he did it. In the 15th chapter of 1st Samuel 
we read of sacrifices and obedience, and that God prefers being 
obeyed to having any sacrifice offered that men may choose. The 
first thing that God wants is obedience. That's what we want in 
our families. If our children disobey us there comes an alternative. 
They must learn to obey, or they or we must leave the house. It is 
the same with the kingdom of God. If we enter it we must obey. To 
obey is better than making sacrifice. Saul lost his crown, his throne, 
his son, his friend Samuel, and the friendship of his son-in-law 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 679 

David; he turned his back on them all because of his disobedience, 
and he finally lost his life. But just turn to that other Saul over in 
the New Testament. He was obedient unto death. He had no Jon- 
athan, save at the right hand of God. He had no crown, no throne, 
but he won them both. A blessing is promised all who will obey. 
God deals with individuals as with nations. The punishment is the 
same. Punishment comes alike upon families and individuals if they 
will not obey. A crisis may come when we do not know whether to 
obey God or our employers or possibly our parents. The Word of 
God makes the way clear. When we come into God's kingdom, 
" whatsoever he saith to thee, do it." If the laws in the nation are 
in conflict with God's law, they must be broken. Christ alone of all 
men obeyed God fully. Obey him and then God may look down 
pleased with his children, and say, "This is my son, this is my 
daughter." Christ came to do God's will. When men disobey army 
orders they are court-martialed and shot. No one complains. Now, 
my friends, is there not as much reason why we should obey the or- 
ders of heaven, and, when we do not, should we not be punished? 
Sinners are willing to do anything but obey God. Coming to him 
as a poor beggar is what they don't like. If they could buy salva- 
tion they would gladly do it. Some men down in Wall street, I 
fancy, would pay great prices. Many people come to me and say, 
" Mr. Moody, is it right for me to go to the theatre; can I dance?" 
That ain't it. Can we glorify God by doing such things? It's a 
good deal better to be right with God, and then he will look down 
with pleasure and bless us. 

• HOPE. 

If I should question every one here to-day I have no doubt each 
would be found with a hope. But is it a true or a false hope! If it is 
false it is worse than none. Job speaks about the hypocrite, and says: 
" Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him." Solomon 
says in Proverbs that "the hope of the unjust man shall perish." If 
you have false hopes of heaven, the best thing you can do is to give 
them up. For what are they good for? Will they bear you over 
Jordan? Will they sustain you beyond the grave? But true hope 
is not in regard to eternal life. That is secured to us if we are born 
of God. Our hopes are of the resurrection of Christ, his second 
coming and our own resurrection. It is written, "He that believeth 
hath eternal life." The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, the 
dead shall be raised, and we shall meet him in the air. It is a glo- 
rious hope. All that believe shall rise. That is a hope sure and 
steadfast. Some one says that joy is like a lark that sings in the 
morning, but hope is like a nightingale that sings in the night. We 
won't need hope after we get to heaven. But it takes us there. You 



680 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

can have Christ and this hope to-day if you will. " He came to hi& 
own and his own received him not, but as many as received him to 
them gave he power." 

FRUITS OP THE SPIRIT. GAL. V: 22. 

Love is the first fruit. If we don't love our enemies we're not 
converted. We must be able to forgive others before God will for- 
give us. There is no grace in loving our friends and those who love 
us. The greatest heathen would do that. But joy is what we want 
to talk about to-day. No man is converted who hasn't it. The 
angels said, " I bring you good tidings of great joy." The world 
may give happiness, but it is fleeting. It may vanish in a day. But 
joy comes from heaven; it is a river, and flows on forever from the 
throne. Some people say they once had this joy, but have it not now. 
Let them turn over to the words, "Restore to me the joy of thy sal- 
vation." He will do it. But remember the words, "Study the 
Word and work." A man may work and still not have joy, and he 
may study the Bible and not have it. He must work and study both. 
Then it will come, " The joy of the Lord is your strength." If you 
have joy in your heart you can't help but work. Your strength will 
not fail you. 

There are three kinds of joy. First is the joy of our own salva- 
tion. How well we remember the day when we found the Lord! 
"Happy day" — how we liked to sing that hymn! Then there is the 
joy of seeing others converted. I pity those who keep out of the 
inquiry-room. We who are in there get the cream of this work; 
while you, if I may be allowed the expression, only get the skimmed 
milk. And a third kind of joy is that which comes from seeing 
others walk in God's ways. In John 15, 11th verse, Christ says, 
" These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain 
with yOu and your joy might be full." That was better than if he 
had left us silver and gold. That's his legacy, his will. Yes, " My 
joy I leave with you," and, thank God, the devil can't get hold of it;, 
the world can't take it away. How easy it is to save souls when you 
have joy in your heart. The world sees it in your faces. Last night 
we had the most extraordinary meeting that has been held. It was 
the grandest impression I have had in New York, to see these young 
men standing up. Ah, the joy of Christ was on their faces. 

WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE ON CHRIST? JOHN iv: 11, 12. 

If Christ was not divine, he was not a Savior, and we are man- 
worshipers; all our hopes are gone, and our faith is vain. Matthew 
wrote to prove that Christ is the true Messiah, the Son of David. 
Mark begins with Malachi, where the Old Testament leaves off. 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 681 

Luke begins with Zachariah. But John sweeps over them all, and 
goes back to the bosom cf God, and brings Christ from the throne. 
The 11th and 12th verses of the 4th chapter of John are to me two 
of the most precious in the Bible. They are about worn out in ray 
Bible with use: " And he came unto his own, and his own received 
him not; but unto such as believed on him, to them gave he power.'* 
Mark the " Him." There is no creed, no denomination, no system 
required. There is not a soul here but can take him to-day if it will. 
" Whomsoever " has been said, and it means all mankind. We have 
the best reasons to believe that this religion is true. How could hun- 
dreds of thousands of Christians have found so much comfort in 
Christ if it were all a myth? See how many men have been elevated 
and lifted up. Let us only take God at his word and we will be 
saved. 

Last night in the young men's meeting, a young man stood up and 
told how he had been saved three years ago; how his mother and sis- 
ters had all given him up, and the Lord reached down and lifted him 
into life. Isn't this proof of the Lord's power? All who find Christ 
tell the same story, be they Americans, English, German, Chinese, or 
of other nationality. What more proof do you want than this, and 
the ages that this religion has been a gospel of peace and joy 
to thousands of suffering souls. There is much discussion now-a- 
days about miracles. But isn't a conversion a miracle? John's gos- 
pel is the great one. Believe, believe, believe, he says. That idea 
is ever before him. Every chapter but two in his writings mentions 
it. God don't tell you to feel; many say they don't feel right to 
come to Christ. God tells you to believe. You must trust him first. 
You must have faith in him before you can have Christian experi- 
ence. u Though he slay me, yet will I trust him;" that's it. If he 
don't save us, who can? All the churches and priests in the world 
can't do it. Now let us pray that all the unbelief in this building 
may be swept away. 

PRAISE. 

We have a blessed subject to-day — " Praise." I think this is the 
first praise meeting we have had. We have been praying a great 
deal, and now let us praise God. There is much more said in the 
Bible about praise than about prayer. The Psalms are nothing but 
praise, and as David got nearer the end of his journey he seems 
to have thought of little else. So it is with Christians — the nearer 
they get to heaven the more they praise God. The saints praise 
him in heaven, and men should learn how to praise him here be 
low. Everything that God has created except the heart of 
man, praises him. The sun, moon, and stars praise him, and 
oh, let us praise him!" "Praise the Lord, O my soul," says 



'882 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

the Psalmist. I knew a man who always used to praise God 
under any circumstances. One day he came in with a severe cut on 
his finger, and said, "I have cut my finger. Praise God! I didn't 
•cut it off." Under all circumstances let us praise God that our mis- 
fortunes are no worse. Let us ask him to help us to praise him. If 
we only had more of these praise meetings, I think it wouldn't be 
long before a glorious revival would sweep through all the churches. 
Forget your troubles, and begin to praise God to-day. 

CHRIST MIGHTY TO SAVE. 

The key-note of this meeting is the sentiment of that hymn — "Christ 
mighty to save." I have had considerable experience with men 
enslaved by strong drink. They try often to reform, but seldom 
succeed alone. The reason is that they have too much confidence 
in their own strength. When they give that up, and learn to trust 
alone in Christ, they are saved. When they call on God for help, 
they always get it. If we could only save ourselves by our own 
strength there would be no need of a Savior. The worst enemy 
man has is himself. His pride and self-confidence often ruin him. 
They keep him from trusting to the arms of a loving Savior. We 
are wicked by our nature; there is nothing good in us; the Bible 
teaches us that all the way through. David in the Psalm said: 
" There is none that doeth good; no, not one." He was right. We 
are all evil in our nature. It is the old Adam. I tell you man 
without God is a failure, and a tremendous failure. There's nothing 
good in him. It is a great deal better to believe God than to hope 
for salvation through your own poor exertions. How many times have 
you resolved to break off from some habit, and failed! The heart is 
deceitful and desperately wicked. What we want is a new crea- 
tion. Don't try to patch up your old natures. We want to be re- 
generated. Last Friday we had some men here from Philadelphia, 
and they did much good. Some have said, " Oh, they won't hold 
out." But we have some other friends here to-day. Let them 
testify. 

peace. — num. vi: 26. 

The gospel is a gospel of peace, and our God is a God of peace, 
not of contention. The wicked know nothing of peace. There is no 
peace saith the Lord, for the wicked; they are like the troubled sea 
— but you don't need to go to the Bible to find that out; if you will 
look around you, you will see it. If you have not got peace, it is a 
sure sign you have not found the true God, for the peace of God will 
keep your hearts and minds if you have found him. Look in the 6th 
chapter of Numbers, 26th verse: " The Lord lift up his countenance 
upon thee, and give thee peace." The Lord will keep thee; the 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 683 

Lord will give thee peace; the Lord will bless thee — blessing at the 
foundation, blessing on the top, peace in the middle, solid, real peace 
such as the world cannot give or take away. When a man has left 
a, will, how eagerly we read it! We don't care much for a dry law 
paper, but if it has got our name in it with a legacy we never find it 
dry. Now God says, 'My peace I leave with you.' Oh, child of 
God, have you got it? None of us have enough of it. I get angry 
and disturbed and make a fool of myself very often; I wish I had 
peace enough to keep me from it, but God gives good measure, 
-shaken up, pressed down, full measure. Let our hearts be open to 
receive the peace of God." 

AFFLICTION. 

You will find in the 119th psalm, 67th verse, these words: " Before 
I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word;" and 
again, in the 71st verse: "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, 
that I might learn thy statutes." We can stand affliction better than 
we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God. When our work 
is light, our prospects good, and everything looks smooth and easy, 
we are more apt to give ourselves over to pleasure. Somebody said: 
" It is the dead level of affairs that makes us go to ruin." A great 
many have a wrong idea of God, and think he sends afflictions be- 
cause he don't love them; they think that, because they don't know 
him. He sends afflictions to humble our hearts and make us look to 
him, and because he loves us, so he cannot let us leave him and for- 
get him. Mr. Moody read a letter from a young lady in London, 
who would not go to the meetings when he was there for fear she 
might be converted, but who, since then, had been brought to God 
through suffering. 

HOPE FOR THE INEBRIATE. 

There is no one day in the week when I feel my weakness so much 
as on Friday. We can do nothing. If these men get liberty, it is by 
the power of God. If you will turn to the third chapter of Aots, 
you will read the story of the lame man whom Peter restored, and 
who followed him into the temple. When the people saw it they 
ran together, greatly wondering, and probably when John saw this 
he said to Peter, "Now, Peter, would be agood time for you to preach." 
And Peter said, " Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why 
look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness 
we had made this man to walk? It was faith in God's name which 
made this man strong, whom ye see and know." The man had been 
blind from his birth, but he walked around, crying and shaking him- 
self in the temple. If we had seen him, we would have thought he 



684 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

was a shouting Methodist with his hallelujahs and aniens. It was 
by Christ's power, not by his own, that Peter did this thing. So it 
is with us. Many ask: "Can these drunkards be saved?" I tell you, 
only by Christ; if God gives them power they will be saved. We 
are living in the days of miracles now. These intemperate men 
are only converted by a miracle. They may be overtaken by a fault, 
but if they are, let us go and help them up again; it is no sign they 
have not been converted because their faults overtake them after- 
ward; it is so with all of us. What we do must be done in Christ's 
name. We might as well haye an icicle in the pulpit as a man 
who leaves Christ out. Tons of such mere intellectual sermons do 
no good. If these men will get Christ they can resist temptation;, 
otherwise they cannot. 

BELIEF IN GOD. II KINGS, 7. 

I have believed in God for thirty years. When first converted I 
did not believe in him very much, but ever since then I have be- 
lieved in him, more and more every year. When people come to 
me, tell me they can't believe, and ask what they shall do, I tell 
them to do as I once knew a man to do. He went and knelt down 
and told God honestly he could not believe in him, and I advise 
them to go off alone and tell it right out to the Lord. But if you 
stop to ask yourself why you don't believe in him, is there really 
any reason ? People read infidel books and wonder why they are 
unbelievers, I ask why they read such books. They think they must 
read both sides. I say that book is a lie; how can it be one side 
when it is a lie? It is not one side at all. Suppose a man tells right 
down lies about my family, and I read them so as to hear both sides; 
it would not be long before some suspicion would creep into my 
mind. I said to a man once, "Have you got a wife?" "Yes, and a 
good one." I asked: "Now what if I should come to you and cast 
out insinuations against her?" And he said, " Well your life would 
not be safe long if you did." I told him just to treat the devil as he 
would treat a man who went round with such stories. We are not 
to blame for having doubts flitting through our minds, but for har- 
boring them. Let us go out trusting the Lord with heart and soul 
to-day. 

HE CAME TO SAVE SINNERS. 

They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 
"I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." 

In his short address he said: Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give an 
account of this saying of Christ's, that he came to save sinners. Sin 
may keep us out of heaven, but cannot keep us from coming to 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 685 

Christ. Christ was a physician; he came to save sinners, and he 
never lost a case that was brought to him. If you should call a phy- 
sician to see a friend and he should go and find that man was per- 
fectly well, he would be indignant, wouldn't he? I remember when 
I was in Chicago, seeing the advertisement of a patent medicine 
stuck all round on houses and rocks and fences. "Pain Killer! Pain 
Killer! Pain Killer! " and I thought, "There is a man who is bound 
to make some money." I hadn't any pain I wanted cured, so I did 
not pay much attention to it. But one morning when spring came 
I had a headache, and when I saw that this Pain Killer would cure 
headache I bought a bottle. Men don't want a doctor until they are 
sick, and don't go to Christ until they feel their need of him. It is 
no use to offer bread to a man who is not hungry, or water to a man 
who is not thirsty. " They that are whole need not a physician, but 
they that are sick." Paul said he was the chief of sinners, and if 
the chief is saved, there is hope for every sinner. 

JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA. 

What I want to call attention to this morning is how one act done 
for Christ, with a pure motive, will live forever. All four of the dis- 
ciples give an account of this deed. Joseph of Arimathea, was a 
rich man and a counselor, a good and just man, and John tells us 
he had long been a secret disciple of Christ. He had never come 
out boldly for fear of the Jews, but in that hour, when all had de- 
serted him and one had betrayed him, the death of Christ brought 
Joseph out, and he alone came forward to care for the crucified body. 
It is the death of Christ which should enlist us all. The fact that he 
died for us should make us all come forward to advance his king- 
dom. Joseph had been opposed to the death of Jesus, but he had 
taken no part in his trial and crucifixion. Dr. Bonner says, "When 
you have a trial before a committee and one of its members will op- 
pose the measure you want to carry, you don't send for him — you 
have the meeting without him if you can." So when this matter 
came up before the Sanhedrim, Joseph was not there and was not 
sent for. It is only when Christ is dead upon the cross that Joseph 
comes forward as a disciple and begs the body of Pilate — an act 
which has lived nearly one thousand nine hundred years, and which 
will continue to live throughout all time. Matthew, Mark, and Luke 
do not tell us where Joseph got the myrrh and aloes, but John tells 
us Nicodemus brought a hundred pounds weight, and that they put 
linen clothes upon the body of Jesus, with the spices, and laid it in a 
new sepulchre wherein was never man yet laid. It was a tomb Jo- 
seph had built for himself, expecting to lie there some day, but he 
probably thought the sepulchre would be all the sweeter if Christ 
had laid there. 



CS6 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

When we go away from here, let us see what we can do for the 
sake of Jesus, what acts that deserve to live. 



LOSING SIGHT OP SELF. 

Mr. Moody read the 9th chapter of Mark. He said: There is no 
doubt but hundreds of Christinas who have attended these meetings 
wonder how they can now go out and work for the Lord. There is 
one thing necessary first, and that is, we must lose ourselves and 
think only of dut}\ In this chapter which I have just read, we learn 
how the disciples had disputed among themselves who should be the 
greatest; but Christ said to them, " If any man desire to be first, 
the same shall be last of all and servant of all." If a man wants to 
become wise before God, he must be willing to appear a fool before 
the world. God don't want our wisdom: he wants our ignorance. 
We read in the 10th chapter of Mark and 31st verse, " But many 
that are first shall be last, and the last first." Then Jesus tells us of 
seven things that are going to happen in reference to his death. 
" The Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and they 
shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles; 
and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon 
him, and shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again." This 
was a prophecy, and I have an idea that many things which we still 
think are visionary will literally take place at some remote time. 
Yet right after this prophecy the disciples said to him, " Master, we 
would that thou shouldst do for us whatsoever we shall desire." 
Here is self again, and always self. It was the dying request of 
Christ that we should eat of the bread and drink of the wine in re* 
membrance of him; yet many young converts say to me, "I need 
not go to the communion table, need I?" I tell them they need not 
go unless they want to, but if that was the dying request of any 
friend they had they would be willing to do it all their lives; why, 
then, should they not desire to do it in remembrance of their Savior? 
They never thought of it in that way, they say. We want to be re- 
membered in heaven, and Christ wants to be remembered here. We 
must pray to God to fill us with this spirit, and help us to get rid of 
self; and never let us stop and try to think who shall be greatest. 

TRUE FRIENDSHIP. 

■■■>' 

We read in the loth chapter of 11th Samuel that David ,%as flee- 
ing in exile from Jerusalem. Absalom had already undermined his 
power and superseded him on the throne. But as David went through 
the gate six hundred men passed on before him, and the king said to 
Ittai, the leader: "Wherefore goest thou also with us; return to thy 
place and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and also an 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 68? 

exile." And Ittai answered the king and said, "As the Lord liveth, 
and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king 
shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant 
be. w There was another man, too, called Hushai, who went out to 
meet the king, but he returned again to the city. How it must have 
pleased David to have found Ittai outside the gate. Ittai is worth 
thousands of Hushais. David did not know who his friends were 
until trouble came. There was true fellowship, true love in that act. 
In time of distress Ittai would not desert his king, but followed him 
into exile. So it should be in the church. That is just what Christ 
looks for; the only thing which can please him is the true love that 
will leave all to follow him. Some people do not know the meaning 
of the word fellowship — it means partnership. Our partnership is 
with Christ the Son, and when we come into it everything we have 
belongs to the firm; we can do nothing by ourselves without con- 
sulting Christ. We must be like Ittai, willing to leave the city and 
all we possess, if necessary, to follow him. 

OUR REFUGE. 

I want to caM your attention to the six cities of refuge appointed 
by Joshua for the children of Israel. These cities were set apart 
that all men who killed any person unawares or unwittingly, and 
without hatred, might flee to them and be safe within their gates. 
The magistrates had to see to it that guide-boards were put up, 
stones cleared away, and the roads kept clear for those who fled for 
their lives from the avengers of blood. These ancient cities of 
refuge are in our day represented by Christ. He is our refuge in 
all times of trouble. 

The names of the cities are Hebrew, and all have a meaning. 
Kedish means holiness. If we flee to this city of refuge we will be 
made holy. Had Christ committed sin we could have no hope, but 
since he is without sin, if we are in Christ we are made perfect.. 
Shechem meant shoulder, which means strength and power. If a 
man needs strength he must flee there. Sins are in one of two 
places, on us or on Christ. If we are weak we must find strength 
in Shechem. Hebron means joined. If we can get there we are 
joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Beser means fortified; you are se- 
cured there if you want to get away from the world. Ramoth means 
heights and Golan means exile — exile in this world and citizenship 
in heaven. These six cities ought to be a help to you. Have we 
Christ for our refuge? If a man is away from God, what hope has 
he? It is folly for a man who has an appetite for drink to try and 
overcome it by himself; he can't overcome both his appetite and the 
devil alone. It is only through Christ that we can be secure. 



688 



PEAYEE MEETING TALKS. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



If we have the Spirit, we have the fruit of the Spirit. If the 
Spirit of God is in us, we will have these qualities of his Spirit. " He 
that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." Some one said 
to me the other day that he understood about belief, but could not 
understand what it was to be born again. I told him that he 
that believed had life eternal, and whoever received life through 
Christ was born again. A man cannot get that life by 
merely going to church and observing forms; he must get the 
Spirit of God, and then he will have light and peace. We have no 
peace so long as we have sin, but if we accept Christ, and salvation 
through him, our sins are blotted out, and we have peace in review- 
ing the past. Spiritual power is what we want next. As soon as 
the Holy Ghost comes we want boldness to go out and proclaim 
Jesus. There was once a man on trial for his life. The king of the 
country in which he lived said the law must take its course, but, 
after he was tried and condemned, he would pardon him. The man 
was cool all through his trial, and when they brought in a verdict of 
guilty, the man was perfectly unconcerned. So with the Christian. 
He will have boldness in his heart on the day of judgment, because 
he knows Christ became a propitiation for his sins and he has his 
pardon laid up in his heart. 

THREE CLASSES. 

I always notice many here at noon whom we have meet in the 
inquiry-rooms, and I want to speak a word to them. There are three 
classes of people who will not accept salvation — those who neglect 
it, those who refuse it, and those who despise it. Many think they 
are not so bad as the scoffer at religion because they only neglect it, 
but if they keep on they are lost just the same. Suppose there is a 
man in a boat going in a swift current down the stream; if he neg- 
lects to pull for the shore he is a doomed man. He will go over the 
rapids, won't he? If Noah had neglected to go into the ark after he 
had built it, he would have been lost with the other antediluvians. 
Nothing could have saved him. You let the cry be raised that this 
building is on fire, and see how many will keep their seats; they 
would be burned up as sure as they did. 

Then again in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, 25th verse, " See 
that ye refuse not him that speaketh." The next step is to refuse 
salvation. A while ago they only neglected it, now they refuse it — 
that is the second round of the ladder. You can only do one of two 
things, take it or refuse it. You have all been in a house where the 
waiter passed ice-water to a number of people sitting together, and 
seen how some would take it and some would not; so the cup of sal- 



PEAYER MEETING TALKS. 689 

vation is passed among you to-day. How many of you will accept 
it? Are you almost persuaded? Remember a hair's breadth from 
heaven is not an inch from hell. 

Again, in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, 28th verse, we read: "He 
that despised Moses's law died without mercy under two or three 
witnesses." Many despise the whole thing, hate it, and will have 
none of it — give them a tract and they light their cigars with it. 
There are the three words — neglect, refuse, despise. When there is 
but one engine and three cars attached, don't they all go the same 
way? If you do either of these three things, you must suffer the 
eternal consequences. 



The key-note for the services to-day is found in the little word 
Come. I would like to speak to you of seven instances where we 
are invited to come to the Lord. In the 55th chapter of Isaiah and 
1st verse we read, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters," and again in the 3d verse, "Incline your ear and come unto 
me; hear, and your soul shall live." I have great hopes that a man 
may be saved when he will stop and listen. People are so engrossed 
with the affairs of this world that but few find time to stop. It is all 
rush and hurry, and they don't think about their souls. I was out 
to dinner yesterday, and they were trying there to teach a little child 
to walk. They would say to her, " Come," and she would try to go 
a few steps. So Christ is calling the world to come, but the trouble 
is they do not heed and won't go. After the Chicago fire, when 
such quantities of money, clothes, and provisions were sent there, 
the only question asked those who applied for assistance was: 
"Were you burned out?" If they could prove it, they got help. All 
you have to do is to show that you want help from God, and he will 
give it. In the 1st of Isaiah we find: " Come now, and let us reason 
together saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet they shall be 
white as show." Sin can keep us out of heaven, but not out of 
Christ. If you are out of Christ, decide now to come to him. As 
the old colored woman said, when she made up her mind, then she 
was there. Will you turn to the 6th chapter of Mark and 31st verse? 
Christ said to his disciples, " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert 
place, and rest awhile." It is a good thing to be alone with God. 
We lead two lives — one in the world and one apart with God. In 
the 11th chapter of Matthew is the invitation, "Come unto me all ye 
that labor." If any man or woman among you is carrying a burden, 
take it to Christ. In the last verse of the 4th chapter of Hebrews 
we are told to come boldly to the throne of grace. Those who are 
afraid to become Christians lest they can't hold out, should remem- 
ber that at the throne we can find grace in time of need. The 
44 



690 PRATER MEETING TALKS. 

ne xt come is in the 22d chapter of Matthew and 4th verse: " Come 
unto the marriage" — the parable of the marriage of the king's son. 
The seventh and last invitation I want to call your attention to is, 
"Come and inherit eternal life." "Come up hither." These are 
blessed words, which will last forever. 

THE RIGHT SPIRIT. 

When Abraham came into God's presence, it was on his face; and 
in all the other instances where the patriarchs and prophets came to 
God they came to him in the same way. David was on his face in 
the psalm. He'd been away from God. Here he was getting back 
again; he had at first to get back to God, and then the blessing 
would come. Then the right spirit would come into them. They 
must have just a clean heart; then the blessing was theirs. Had 
they a right spirit? Had they got to where they could say, as the 
Psalmist did, that they had sinned against God and were waiting for 
forgiveness? They must be able to teach transgressors God's way. 
How could they teach the wicked God's way? They had to get the 
Holy Spirit, and then came the joy of God's salvation. If they would 
convert sinners, they must have this spirit. How should the world 
know God? The world wouldn't read the Bible; but what did the 
apostles say of Christians? They were "known and read of all men." 
This was the way the world read God in them, read Christ in them. 
If he knew his own heart, its desire was to have God's Spirit. With 
it, they could do all things; without it, their work was as sounding 
brass and as a tinkling cymbal. Over in the book of Nehemiah, it 
was said that there was joy in the hearts and lives of God's children. 
There were too many long-faced Christians. They always seemed 
to him to be under the lash; they'd never got away from the law. 
They wanted more joy; they needed greater gladness in their lives. 
"Then will I teach transgressors the way, and sinners shall be con- 
verted unto thee." "Then." This is when God had restored to 
them the joy of his salvation. They didn't place enough stress on 
the word "then." It was the turning point in their work. This was 
what Chicago wanted. A few hundred live Christians that had this 
spirit could do a mighty work. The king could have given a good 
many sheep, if God had wanted them; but he didn't. The Lord 
didn't want his money. What does he say? Why, "to obey was 
better than sacrifice." This is what was wanted — obedience. The 
human heart didn't want to obey. They must have a broken and a 
contrite heart. An incident of an Illinois minister whose labors had 
been unblessed for a time was recited, and it was related how his 
heart had been broken by love, through a little three-year-old- 
daughter of his; and a revival in the church followed. So, here in 
Chicago, said Mr. Moody, before we can have any great blessing, or 



PBAYEE MEETING TALKS. 61)1 

any blessing at all, the hearts of the people have got to be broken; 
and then the blessings will come. 



PEAYEE. 

We have for our subject, this afternoon, the wonderful prayer of 
the prophet Daniel. There is an impression abroad now that it has 
always been women and a few weak men who have prayed; but you 
can scarcely find a bolder or a wiser man than Daniel. He was 
prime minister of that great nation, for a long while. He was a 
wiser ruler and had more influence than any other man living on 
earth; and yet he was a man of prayer, and was not afraid to pray 
publicly. We are told that, when he was taken down to Babylon, 
the great king had a dream, and no man in his realm could interpret 
it. The king thought of his captive Daniel, and brought him and 
asked him what it meant. The young man, if he had not believed 
in God's power, might have turned away. But he didn't; he boldly 
told Nebuchadnezzar what God had written there. 

Not only was Daniel a praying man, but he had faith that God 
would answer his prayers. Some people pray enough, but do not 
have faith that the Lord will hear them. They are lukewarm. 
There are a good many people of this sort here to-day. Daniel spoke 
to God with every confidence of being answered. Look at him 
when he went down into the den of lions, how he prayed. Prayer 
was with everything he did. I think we would have a good deal 
better government in this country, if our rulers prayed more. There 
would be a good many sneers at first; but the result would be a good 
government, and a wise one. 

This man believed in prophecies, too; and I can fancy how the 
old man's eyes opened on turning away back to Jeremiah's writing, 
seventy years before, and reading: "I will punish them; the young- 
men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die 
by famine;" and then looking around him, and seeing how all the 
words pronounced had been fulfilled. They disobeyed the Lord. 
When they were in Palestine, he said to his people that they must 
rest on the Sabbath day; but for 490 years they disobeyed God's 
command, and the Lord said, If they don't do what I want them, 1 
will make them. So he sent Nebuchadnezzar out after them; and 
he captured them, and held them for seventy years. If they would 
not give the Lord this, he said he would take it; and so if we do not 
give up what God wants us to, he will not forgive us our sins, but 
keep us in bondage, and we will never hang our harps upon the wil- 
low, or sing the songs of Zion. 

I will just read: "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, 
and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from 
thy precepts and from thy judgments. And now, Lord our God, 



692 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

Thy hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a 
mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown as at this day; we have 
sinned; we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy right- 
eousness, I beseech thee let thy anger and thy fury be turned away 
from the city of Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins 
and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are be- 
come a reproach to all that are about us. Now, therefore, O our 
God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications, and cause 
thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary, that is desolate for the Lord's 
sake." 

He had not Christ to pray to like us. Daniel asks: "for the 
Lord's sake." He lived on the other side of Christ, and could not, 
like us, say " for Christ's sake. Oh what a power we have in prayer 
in Jesus. And he goes on: "Oh Lord, incline thine ear and hear; 
open thine eyes and behold our desolation, and the city which is 
called by thy name, for we do not present our supplication before 
thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; 
O Lord, forgive; hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O 
my God; for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And 
while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin — Mark 
that — "and confessing my sin" — and the sin of my people Israel, 
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy 
mountain of my God; yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the 
man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being 
caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening obla- 
tion. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I 
am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding." Before he 
got off his knees, Daniel's message was answered. I don't know how 
far heaven is off; but the angel Gabriel, the messenger of God, came to 
him while he was praying. Think of that. Here was a man who 
could not look at God for the sins of his people, who only prayed 
earnestly; and before he was through, his prayer was answered, and 
Gabriel appeared. We know of only three visits that Gabriel ever 
made. This one, when he came to bring God's people to the prom- 
ised land. Daniel was told that God was able to do everything; and 
the messenger not only told him that the children of Israel were 
going to the promised land, but he let Daniel into the secret of the 
Messiah's coming. The second time he came to Zacharias. At first 
Zacharias doubted him, but he said: "I am he who sits in the pres- 
ence of God;" and then he came to the young maiden who bore the 
Christ, and that was the third visit. 

There are a great many young Christians in Chicago who have got 
into the way of the world, who are falling into the way of thinking 
and believing that God has given over answering prayer. God an- 
swers prayers to-day, as readily as he did of old. Infidels and scof- 
fers and scientists may tell us that the world must move along in a 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 693 

certain way, and a Divine answer to a prayer is absurd — the affairs 
of the world are and always have gone along in a regular way. 
There were Infidels and scoffers, doubtless, in Babylon, who very 
likely laughed at this answer to the prayer of Daniel. But we have 
in this book a long list of promises to answer prayer; and let us unite 
in asking God's blessing on our meetings in Farwell Hall, and that 
the harvest of converts will be abundant. Ask it sincerely and earn- 
estly; and you will see how quick the Lord will come and revive his 
work in this city. 



HEART-SEARCHING. 

I want to speak to you about the two verses — 23d and 24th — of 
the 109th Psalm. " Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me 
and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting." " Search me; " not my neigh- 
bor, nor my brother, nor my sister, but " search me." You who have 
been here during the week will have seen that I have been trying to 
instill into all the system of heart-searching; that every one may go 
down to the bottom of his heart." Try to get all to say, "O 
Lord, know my heart." If God searches us through, he will 
make quick work of Chicago. The great trouble is that people 
search themselves, and do not ask God's aid. We want to ask God 
to come to us with his searching power, that our hearts may be bared. 
What is it that keeps away from us this searching of our hearts? It 
is not the world; it is not the devil, for he has not the power. The 
only thing that keeps it from us is our own will; and the only thing 
that keeps the blessing of God back from Chicago is the people. A 
great many of us wonder how it is that our prayers have done no 
good; how it is that they have gone no higher than our heads. The 
truth would be discovered if we examined, — that we are not living 
in communion with God. Some of us think we are in communion 
with God; but it is a false thought. A false hope is worse than no 
hope at all; because in it a man is at rest and happy, and he cannot 
do any work. If we get that heart-searching truly, we will know 
just where we stand. We must not look at what people think of us, 
but what we look like in God's sight. Therefore we must beware 
lest we have only a false hope, and ask God to give us the true 
searching power. If we falsely believe that we have it, may God 
take it from us to-day, so that the work may be deep in Chicago. I 
have been praying all along that the work might be deeper here than 
anywhere else; but unless we get this searching power, we don't do 
much good. 

I was out on my brother's farm, a short time ago, and he was plow- 
ing. He could not go very deep, owing to the roots in the ground. 
So it is in Chicago; the roots have got to be taken out before' our 



094 



PBA.YER MEETING TALKS. 



work can go on. Let the prayer of David, "Teach me, O Lord, and 
know my heart," sink deep into us. Let us pray that this hour may 
be a heart-searching time; and if our hope is a false one, let us be 
willing to give it up. I have heard of a lady who would not attend 
our meetings when everything was pleasant. If I was ill with an in- 
curable disease, and called a doctor in, and he was to say: "Well, 
you are all right, you will soon be around again," although he knew 
I should die in thirty days, I shouldn't like him. But there are a 
great many people whom this would suit. Those people do not like 
to come here and listen to us telling them that their souls are sick 
and diseased, and prescribing just what will cure them. It is better 
to know the truth; that unless we search those hearts of ours and 
take out the disease, there is no hope for us. So let us pray, and 
let it be an honest prayer from us. "O God, search our hearts." 
And if, when you go home, you feel troubled, don't say that you 
won't come back to the meetings, but ask God for more searching 
power, and then you will be ready to work. 

A doctor comes to a man who has broken his arm. The doctor 
feels around at first and he says, "Does that hurt you?" touching 
the arm. The man answers, " No." The physician goes a little 
higher, and says, " Does that hurt you?" "No, it don't." But by 
and by he touches the broken part, and the man cries out, " Oh, that 
hurts me ! " And so with God. He touches our broken spot, and 
we don't like it. 

Now, I have been thinking that there is a passage in Christ's ser- 
mon on the Mount that might point out our hindrances in Chicago: 
" Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there remem- 
berest that thy brother hast taught against thee, leave there thy gift 
before the altar and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, 
and then come and offer thy gift." Now, I don't want you to think 
me personal; but I hope the Spirit of God may be present to-day 
to carry the truth to every one who has a quarrel going on. I be- 
lieve the difficulty with us is the trouble in the church; the strife, the 
dissension going on among the brethren. If you have come to the 
altar with a quarrel between you and your brother, leave there thy 
gift and go out and be reconciled to him. If you have any malice 
or hatred against any one, your prayers will go for nothing; they will 
go no higher than your head. I believe this is the reason there is 
so much work lost among us; that you have something against some 
one, or some one has something against you. 

I knew of two brothers who had a quarrel; a regular Cain and 
Abel over again. The mother could not get them reconciled. She 
could not sleep; her prayers went up, night after night. One of the 
brothers saw how his mother felt, and was sorry for her. To please 
her, he bought a very costly gift and took it to her. "1 don't want 
any gift," she said; "I want you to be reconciled to your brother." 



PBAYEK MEETING TALKS. 695 

If he had been reconciled first, and then brought the gift to his 
mother, it would have been all right. So it is with God. You take 
jour gifts to the altar, and keep in your heart hatred toward your 
brother. God don't want your gift until you are reconciled. 

Now think for a moment. Think of anyone who believes you are 
a hypocrite; anyone who says you are blackhearted; and who does 
not believe in anything you say in the meetings. Go and seek him 
out, and be reconciled to him. That is the gospel of the New Tes- 
tament. "Oh!" you say, "he will not believe me; he with whom I 
have a quarrel will not forgive me." Go and speak kindly to him; 
show him a forgiving spirit yourself, and be reconciled to God. Tell 
him that you want his forgiven ess; that you do not want him to stumble 
in the way of his salvation over you. I do not think of anything 
that would lift Chicago more than the fact of everyone here taking 
this truth to their hearts. We would make quick work with it. 

There is a passage in the 11th chapter of Mark, if I know it cor- 
rectly. I hear it quoted very often in the prayers at the meetings: 
" Whatsoever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye shall receive 
them and ye shall have them." But they stop there, and do not go 
on to the next verse; and they say: "God has not answered my 
prayer," when nothing comes from their supplication. They should 
read the next verse for the reason: " When ye stand praying, for- 
give, if ye have aught against any, that your Father which is in 
heaven may forgive your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, 
neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." 
When they pray, they want God to forgive them; but they are not 
willing to forgive others. Suppose I was a minister, and 1 had 
trouble with a brother; and some pretty hard words arose from 
the quarrel. Well, I get up and go to a man and pray with him. I 
find he has a great deal of trouble, and I say to him: "Won't you 
just cast your troubles on the Lord?" He says: "Well, the fact is, 
I have had a quarrel with a man, and I feel bitter toward him." 
Then I say: "Go and forgive the man, and be reconciled toward 
him." But he asks me: "You had a quarrel with a man; did you 
go to him and forgive him?" So we cannot go to men and preach 
Christ, if we have hard feelings ourselves for anybody. If there is 
any worker here to-day who has a quarrel with his brother, let him 
go at once and seek a reconciliation. 

Let us have a heart-searching here to-day. Let us ask God's and 
our own efforts, so that the car of salvation will rush along in the 
city. I tried to reconcile two men who stood very high in the com- 
munity, who had a quarrel; and in their churches the wheels of the 
salvation car were clogged. I said to one of them: "Don't you 
know that God is not going to bless your church as long as this 
quarrel is going on? Now I would like you to go to that other man 
and say: ' [f you think I have done you an injustice, I want you to 



696 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

forgive me.' " " Well," said he, "I don't know that I can put it in 
that way. I fear that I am a little to blame, and 1 don't think he would 
receive me." The other man said the same thing, but I just reasoned 
with them and got them together; and they were soon down on their 
knees, asking God to bless the church. It was pride that kept these 
two men separate, and hindered the work of their churches; and 
whenever that was reached and cut out, everything went on smoothly. 
There are a great many things that have to be rooted out in Chicago 
before the work goes on prosperously. If there is any secret sin 
clustering around our hearth, we must draw that sin out before our 
work will be blessed by fruit. 

DANCING CHURCH MEMBERS. 

Give them something better to do. Get them on the Lord's 
work, and they won't want dancing. Now, my little boy is very 
fond of getting hold of the scissors to play with; and his mother is 
frightened that he will dig his eyes out, or get hurt in some way. 
The other day he got them, and was playing around, when his sister 
saw him and tried to take them away; but he only grabbed the 
tighter. Then she ran, got an orange, and held it up, saying, 
" Willie, want an orange!" and he dropped those scissors in a min- 
ute. So with your dancing Christians; they will always go for the 
better thing. If there is a dancing Christian here, and he isn't quite 
sure whether it is right or wrong, just let him give Christ the benefit 
of the doubt. Let him pray over it; and if he has any doubt then, 
why give it up. You couldn't conceive Paul dancing. The idea of 
Noah dancing and playing cards in the ark, while the world was 
perishing! The world is perishing now, as much as it was then. It 
is your duty to try and save souls. 

UNANIMITY 

At a meeting in Glasgow where a man said to him: "I have been 
at work in the inquiry-room lately, but the work got into me last 
night, and there is a good deal of difference." So among those 
ministers who have come up here, in whom the work has entered. 
We will hear from them, whereas with those who are in the work only — 
well, we may never hear of them again. He rejoiced at the spirit 
of unanimity which he noticed during this session of the convention. 
He declared that he had not seen a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or 
an Episcopalian — they all seemed to be children of God. Oh, 
those miserable sectarian walls! May the great God knock them 
down. 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 697 



PERSONAL EPFOET. 



Most of you are aware that there has a praying alliance been 
formed of churches. Now there are about four hundred that have 
written requests asking us to pray that God may revive his work in 
their midst. Now, before we go hence, let us first have a few mo- 
ments of prayer for those churches that there may be a blessed work 
of grace in all of them. And let me say one thing about personal 
effort. I think if we will first begin to talk with our friends, those 
that we come in contact with personally, quietly and gently about 
the Savior, although they may not previously be interested, I think that 
we will be greatly rewarded. I went out to Cambridge to spend 
Saturday, and the father and mother wanted to have me to speak to their 
oldest son, a young man who is preparing for Harvard College. I 
asked him if he had any interest on the subject of religion; he said 
he hadn't. I talked with him on other subjects that he was interested 
in; and then I brought up again on the subject of religion. Finally 
we took a ride out to Mount Auburn, and I talked to him a little 
more about it, and said: "I wish you would come down to the meet- 
ing next Monday night, and hear the young converts speak." And 
he was there; and when I asked the inquirers to go up stairs, he 
started and went up. Yesterday that father came to me and said 
his dear boy went home Monday night and told his father and mother 
that the question of eternity was settled — that he had found a Sav- 
ior; and I don't think you can find a happier mother and father per- 
haps in all Cambridge to-day than that father and mother. And yet 
there is a man that said he was not at all interested. And a great 
many think and tell you that they are not interested; but when the 
Spirit of God is working, you will find that those that are careless 
will soon become interested. Now let us pray that God will do his 
work and that each one of us may be watching for souls, and that 
he may revive his work in all these churches. 

CONFESSION. 

I will read from the 10th chapter of Romans: 

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that 
they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal 
for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being igno- 
rant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own 
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness 
of God." 

I think you will find a great many men stumble right there. In- 
stead of submitting to the righteousness of God, they are all the time 
going about to establish their own righteousness. " If thou shalt 
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy 
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 



698 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

I called your attention to that truth yesterday. I want to call 
your attention back to it to-day, and I want to keep this right before 
all these men that are trying now to take their stand on the Lord's 
side, that there is one thing you must do, and that is to confess the 
Lord Jesus. You that heard General Swift yesterday will bear in 
mind that he said that he was going to be a secret disciple. I think 
there are a good many in Boston that are trying that very thing now. 
They are not willing to confess with the mouth and take their stand 
on the Lord's side; yet they are wondering they do not get the light 
that people talk about. The light will not come till they come out 
boldly, and let the world know who they are and whose side they 
are on. If they believe in God, they will not be ashamed of him. 
We may be ashamed of ourselves, but not be ashamed of the Lord 
Jesus. Let us not be ashamed of him who has redeemed us with 
his own precious blood. I do not believe that a man is worth much 
for Christ, unless he is willing to be anything and do anything for 
him. We have a great many people now that talk about their faith 
being very weak, and they are praying that God may strengthen 
their faith. " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word 
of God." The more a man knows God, the more faith he will have 
in him. Those that have no faith in him, it is because they do not 
know God. Faith cometh by reading the Word of God, and instead 
of looking all the time at our small faith and mourning about it, let 
us look a little more at the Word of God. Then if we have a little 
faith, let us thank God for that. We can do a good deal with a little 
faith. I would to God that every man and woman in this city that 
has been redeemed from the hand of the enemy would just say so, 
and speak out and let the world know whose side you are on. When 
these men testify, let them tell the truth; and that will be enough* 
It is not orators, but witnesses that we want. 

CHILDREN INVITED. 

I will read a few verses in the 19th chapter of the gospel accord- 
ing to Matthew, beginning at the 13th verse: " Then there were 
brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on 
them and pray, and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, 
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hand on them, and 
departed thence." 

I have just come from the house of mourning, and my heart was 
touched as I saw the mother lying in her coffin, and her oldest little 
girl, about twelve years old, that she has been trying to lead to 
Christ; and a few months ago, she wrote back from Chicago to her 
friends in this city that she thought she had found peace in the Sa- 
vior. She was rejoicing in her children's salvation. Little did she 
think, that to-day, she would soon be laid away in the grave. Do 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 099 

you think she regretted her faithfulness with those children? All 
this winter, while others were being blessed, she was anxious that 
her children should be; and every father and mother ought to be anx- 
ious for their little ones. We do not know how soon we may be 
taken away ourselves. As I looked at that oldest daughter, I said: 
"Well, she never will forget her mother's teaching; she has been 
faithful, and now she is gone." 

I am glad that this word " little" occurs in this passage. There 
are many of us who think our children are too little to be blessed; 
we do not bring them to Christ as we ought; we do not care for their 
salvation as we ought. To me there is no more beautiful sight than 
a, father and mother coming into meeting with their children, and 
lifting up their hearts silently in prayer that the blessing may come 
on their children. For the promises are not only to us, but to our 
children ; and it seems to me we ought to be faithful to them. 

In one of our conventions in the West, several years ago (the man 
had come from the East formerly, but he had been out West a good 
many years), there was a man about seventy years of age got up and 
said he could not remember but one act of his father. He could not 
remember how he looked, or anything he said or did, except one cold 
winter night, a little while before he died, he took up a little chip 
and whittled out a little cross; and then, with tears streaming down 
the old man's face, he told the boy how God had a Son, how he sent 
that Son into the world, and how wicked men put him on the cross 
and crucified him; and the story of the cross made an impression 
which he never forgot. And I believe there is no story that will im- 
press our children like that. While others are being blessed in this 
city, shall our children be left out? And if they have got to be 
brought, who can do it better than the mother who is with them all 
the while? And I am glad to see so many mothers here this noon- 
tide. I don't feel so much like talking as like praying that, if God 
takes us away from them, they will be gathered into the fold of the 
Great Shepherd, after we are gone; and if they are called away be- 
fore us, that we will have no regrets that they will be in heaven 
awaiting our coming. 

Let us pour out our hearts, that they may be in glory and that we 
may be an unbroken circle in heaven; that they may not be led away 
in these dark days of unbelief, when Satan is so persistently trying 
to lead so many away. 

THE BOSTON MARKETMEN. 

The first time that I ever came into this hall was about twenty- 
one or twenty-two years ago this spring, I think; or it might have 
been in the month of June. Anthony Burns was then in the Court 
House; and there were a great many Bostonians going to try to set 



TOO PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

him free. I remember after Wendell Phillips had spoken, and quite 
a number of others had spoken on this platform, and when the meet- 
ing was just at white heat, General Swift, who spoke at Tremont 
Temple the other day, was up in the gallery; and he said he under- 
stood the people were already breaking into the Court House and 
taking out Anthony Burns. I went out of this hall as quick as I 
ever left a meeting, and there was a great crowd round the Court 
House; but all of us couldn't liberate that poor captive. But, thank 
God, the gospel can set hundreds free to-day. We haven't got to 
go out of this hall and to go up to the Court House; but in this old 
hall men who have been loaded down with sin, and who have been 
slaves to sin for twenty, thirty, and forty years, can be set free this 
very hour if they want freedom ; and I don't know any better place 
than this hall, that is called the "Cradle of Liberty," for the captives 
to be set free. And I hope every Christian in this house will be lift- 
ing up their hearts to God in prayer, and there may be hundreds of 
them set free to-day. That is what we have come for. We have 
not come here just to have a meeting in Faneuil Hall, but to pro- 
claim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and tell men how they 
can be free. 

I want to call your attention to a few verses in the 16th chapter of 
John: "These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not 
be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the 
time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God 
service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have 
not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, 
that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of 
them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, be- 
cause I was with you. But now I go my way to him that sent me; 
and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have 
said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Never- 
theless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away; 
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I 
depart I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will re- 
prove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin 
because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to 
my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the Prince 
of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, 
but ye can not bear them now." 

I want to call your attention particularly to the words, "And when 
he is come he will reprove the world of sin because they believe not 
on me." Of sin, because men lie and steal, and get drunk and mur- 
der? No. "Of sin, because they believe not upon me." That is 
the root of sin; that is the sin which brings forth all this bad fruit; 
this miserable unbelief. Would to God, it could be swept out of 
Faneuil Hall to-day! If every particle of the unbelief that is repre- 



PRAYEE MEETING TALKS. 701 

sented by this assembly could all be laid aside, what a blessed hour we 
should spend together here. "And when he is come, he will reprove 
the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment." Now that is the 
work of the Holy Ghost. There is no preacher that can convince 
men of sin; there is no amount of praying that can convince men of 
sin; that is the work of the Holy Ghost. And I cannot help but be- 
lieve that there are hundreds and thousands of men now in Boston 
that are convicted of sin; but they are waiting for something and 
they don't know exactly what it is; but they think they have got to 
wait until they have a little more feeling; or that they have got to 
have some sudden shock come upon them; or some sudden sensation 
that shall come stealing over them, before they ean get rid of their 
sins. If a man is convicted of sin, if a man is convinced that he is a 
sinner in the sight of God, that is the work of the Holy Ghost. The 
Holy Ghost has already commenced his work; and to that class of 
men I want to speak to-day. I want to tell you how you can get 
rid of your sin and come to Christ, if you will. If men really want 
to get rid of their sins, all they have got to do is just to cast them 
on the Lord Jesus Christ — leave them with him. But some of you 
may say, "How is it about repentance? Haven't I got to repent? 
Isn't there a certain amount of feeling I have got to have? Haven't 
I got to have some remorse; and haven't I got to pass through some 
amount of despair and gloom before I have this? 1 ' That is the trou- 
ble with men when they are convinced of sin; they begin to look 
around for some one else's experience. Of all the people who ever 
lived in the world, there have been no two alike, and God never re- 
peats himself; and, although we are converted by the same power 
and by the same Holy Ghost, no two ever come up to the cross in 
the same way. Instead of looking to this and to that man's expe- 
rience, let us look right to the Master, and come with our sins and 
repentance and faith, and all those things can come in their place; 
but you must be occupied by Christ. If a man really wants to go to 
Christ, he will not be thinking about his repentance and faith. Faith 
is only the hand that reaches out and takes the blessing, and it is 
Christ we want; and if we will come to him as a child should come 
to his mother, and confess our sins and ask him to forgive us, he will 
do it. There is nothing he desires to do as much as that; and he 
will blot them out as a cloud. When men are converted, they will 
turn right about face; and the moment a man is convinced that he 
is a sinner, if he will turn right to God, he will forgive his sins. 
People say, "I don't believe you can be saved that easy; I believe 
we have got to work a little for salvation. Faith and works I believe 
in." So do I; but I don't believe a man is going to work out his 
salvation. 

Suppose for a moment that this platform is the wreck of a sinking 
ship. The vessel has sprung a-leak, and is going to the bottom. 



702 PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 

The captain says: " Jump into the life -boat ! The vessel's going' 
down ! " But I think I can keep the vessel afloat by pumping, and 
so I keep pumping, pumping; and I say to the captain, "I don't 
believe the vessel's going down." Now that would be working out 
my own salvation; and all the time the vessel would be sinking. 
But Mr. Sankey won't stay on the wreck. He just leaps into the 
life-boat, and takes an oar, and pulls with a will for the shore. That's 
working out your salvation after you're saved. Now isn't there some 
one here to-day, who will just leap into the life-boat and be saved? 
I want Mr. Sankey to sing " Pull for the Shore," and may every 
man join in the chorus. " Pull for the Shore" was then sung by Mr. 
Moody's co-worker, in accordance with his suggestion, the assemblage 
joining in the refrain with the utmost heartiness. 

THE BOSTON REVIVAL. 

I have been a professed Christian for twenty-one years, and I 
have been in Boston and in other cities for most of that time; and I 
never saw such a day as this is. I stand in wonder and amazement 
at what is being done. It seems as if God were taking this work 
out of our hands. Prayer meetings are springing up in all parts of 
the city. There are things happening now that if you were asked 
three months ago if they were possible, you would say: "Yes; if 
God would open the windows of heaven and do them." The idea of 
these men that have been blaspheming turning aside to pray! We 
are living in the days that the prophets prophesied of. We 
are living in the days of the Son of man. Now is the time to begin 
the work. Now is the time for every child of* God to lift up his 
voice and plead with men. Let me tell you how a woman was 
blessed here only last Thursday. Last Friday night a man came into 
the inquiry-room and said to me: " Last night I was cursing you, and 
I want you to forgive me." "How came you to curse me? " I asked. 
u My wife could not live with me, and we have been separated for 
some time. She came around last night, and wanted me to go to the 
Tabernacle. I cursed the Tabernacle and you, and said you was a 
fraud. But I was walking up Tremont street about eleven o'clock 
to-day, and I was drawn into the Tabernacle by some unseen power. 
How I got there, I don't know. God met me; and he has taken 
away my sin and has given me a new heart." This morning the man 
was here with his wife; and now they have as happy a home as yom 
can find in Boston. He was saved by that woman going to him. 

MR. SANKEY'S ADDRESS. 

Brethren, what is one of the dearest thoughts that come to you as 
you go about your work and business in the vicinity of this hall ? 
What is one of the most precious and sacred thoughts that comes 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 703 

into your hearts, now and then, amidst the toil of business? Isn't 
it about some little one of yours? Isn't it the thought of some Wil- 
lie or Charlie you have around your home, your hearth; one 
that climbs upon your knee^ or who may be lying out there in yon- 
der cemetery? Isn't that a sacred thought, that you would not utter 
here to-day in this hall? You keep that to yourself; that is your 
own. Oh, it is a very precious thought that, by and by, you are 
going to meet that little child that clustered about your knee. Now, 
I have a little song here that has just the utterance your little Wil- 
lie would make. He is talking about the angels who will meet him. 
Now, while I am singing let us have it very still, if we can; and may 
the Lord bless it to every father here that is giving up all his 
thoughts to his business and none to heaven, none to the Lord, and 
not thinking of the hereafter very much. May this be the turning 
point of many a father's life; and may he say: "I will try to live 
for heaven — for that higher life; not all dow^n here, but to the better 
life to which we hasten." 



BIBLE READINGS. 

OVERCOMING SELF. 

For the past week we have been, at these noon meetings, looking at 
the obstacles that are in the way of working for Christ. Of course 
that has brought us to ourselves, for we are the only ones that can 
hinder the work of Christ in this city. He could not do many 
mighty works there on account of their unbelief; and if there is un- 
belief and coldness in our hearts, God is not going to do many 
mighty works here. But, to-day, I was not going to talk about un- 
belief, but about another enemy, perhaps the greatest of all enemies I 
and that is, ourselves. I think we will find, if we search our hearts 
by the light of the Holy Spirit, that we will find self mixed up with 
about all we undertake to do for God. We read in Corinthians 1st, 
part of the 31st verse: "Whatsoever ye do, do all for the glory of 
God." Do all for the glory of God! Now supposing we ask our- 
selves this question: Have we been working for God, with the right 
motive? Has it been God's work, or our own, that we have been 
doing? Has self been crucified, and has God's glory been the 
uppermost thought in our hearts? 

I was very much impressed some time ago, in finding this un- 
holy ambition constantly coming out in the lives of those men, that 
Christ chose to follow him; and it seemed very strange that, after 
they had been with him three years, they had not got the lesson 
from him. It seems about the hardest lesson for us to learn. It 
seems about the hardest thing, to get to the end of self; but when 
we have got to the end of self, and self is lost sight of, self-seeking 
and self-glory thrown aside, and Christ and his cause are uppermost 
in our hearts, how easy it is for God to use us. In the 9 th chapter 
of Mark, 31st verse, are these words: 

For he taught his disciples, and said unto them: The Son of man 
is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him: and after 
that he is killed he shall rise the third day. But they understood not 
that saying, and were afraid to ask him. And he came to Caper- 
naum: and being in the house he asked them: What was it that ye dis- 
puted among yourselves by the way? While he was talking about 
his death and suffering, they had a dispute on hand. There was a 
falling out among the herdsmen. By the way, they had disputed 
among themselves as to who should be the greatest. Is not the same 
spirit abroad in the church to-day? Is not the great question too 
often, Who shall be greatest? Is not that one of the great obsta- 

704 



BIBLE READINGS. 7Q5 

cles we have to contend with. Who shall be greatest? And he sat 
down and called the twelve, and said unto them: "If any man de- 
sires to be first, the same shall be the last of all and servant of all. 
And he took a child and set himin the midst of them ; and when he had 
taken him in his arms, he said unto them: "Whosoever shall receive 
one of such children in my name receiveth me, and whosoever shall 
receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me." And John 
answered him, saying: "Master, we saw one casting out devils in 
thy name, and he followeth not us; and we forbade him because he 
followeth not us." There the same spirit is coming out again. He 
did not believe in his work. He did not belong to our party or con- 
gregation: he did not belong to our sect and party; and so we for- 
bade him. There is a good deal of that spirit in these times. It 
lays down at the bottom. We want to build up our cause, and we 
have not charity enough to allow other men to use their own methods. 
So Adab and Medab prophesied, and they were compelled to suffer 
because they were not of the seventy. But God rebuked that spirit, 
as we see; and Jesus said: "Forbid him not; for there is no man 
which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of 
me. For he that is not against us is for us." 

What I can call your attention to is this: that while Christ was 
talking about his death and suffering at Jerusalem, these very men 
were discussing who should be the greatest. While Christ is re- 
jected by the world, how many people are discussing the same ques- 
tion, Who shall be the greatest? What a strife it is; Who shall be 
the greatest; and who shall shine the most in this world! Oh that 
God would give us grace enough to get self under our feet; to get 
over this terrible self-seeking, and to get at the end of self. Now it 
seems singular, if you turn over to the 10th of Mark, 32d verse, the 
same thing occurs again: 

"And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus 
went before them; and they were amazed; and as they followed they 
were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them 
what things should happen unto them, saying, Behold, we go up to 
Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief 
priests and unto the Levites; and they shall condemn him to death; 
and shall deliver him to the Gentiles; and they shall mock him, and 
shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him; 
and the third day he shall rise again." You would have thought 
that surely would have filled their hearts with sorrow — that they 
were going to mock him, and spit upon him and to kill him;a nd then, 
that he was going to rise again. You would have thought they 
surely would have been filled with astonishment; but see what took 
place. "And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him, 
saying, Master, we would that thou shouldst do for us whatsoever we 
shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should 
45 



706 BIBLE READINGS. 

do for you? They? said unto him: Grant unto us that we may sit., 
one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand in thy glory." 
Who shall be greatest? Again, there they were seeking to be 
greatest, that they might have a seat on his right hand and on his 
left hand. " But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask; 
can ye drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with the 
baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him: We 
can. And Jesus said unto them: Ye shall indeed drink of the cup 
that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal, shall 
ye be baptized; but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is 
not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is pre- 
pared. And when the ten heard it they began to be much displeas- 
ed with James and John." Then, you see, jealousy came in there, 
and they were much displeased with James and John. But Jesus 
called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which 
are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; 
and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it 
not be among you; but whosoever will be great among you shall 
be your minister. And whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall 
be the servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be min- 
istered unto, but the minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many. He did not come to be administered unto but he came to 
administer. He came to be a servant, and now we want the spirit 
of the Master. 

If you will allow me the expression, this eternal spirit of seeking 
to be great is one of the greatest obstacles to-day in the church of 
God. Oh, may God take it from our hearts, and may we have the 
spirit of the Master; may we know what it is to have the same mind 
that was in Christ, and he that will be great let him be the least of 
all. And when we have got at the end of this self-seeking, and are 
nothing in the sight of God, then we are fit channels for God to speak 
through. It says here in Jeremiah: " Seekest thou great things for 
thyself. Seek them not." Oh, how it has got into the church, and 
not only into the pews, but it has crept up into the pulpit, unholy 
ambition there, not so much for the glory of God but for our own glory. 
We like to see large congregations, and take the glory to ourselves,, 
and then we cannot work; for God had decreed that no flesh shall 
glorify in his sight, and when flesh is crucified and we have got flesh 
under, then the Spirit of God can work, and we have got the glory. 
I can imagine some of you saying: "Of course, these disciples being 
with Christ, they very soon got the lesson learned; and by the end 
of Christ's ministry, they got complete victory over themselves." 
But we turn over to the 22d chapter of Luke, and we find in the 23d 
verse these words. It was that last night of the supper, and one of 
the saddest things that ever took place while he was here: "And 
they began to inquire among themselves which of them it was that 



BIBLE READINGS. 707 

should do this thing. And there was also a strife among them, 
which of them should be accounted the greatest." 

There was also a strife among them, which of them should be the 
greatest — right under the very shadow of the cross. The very night 
he instituted that supper; the very night Judas had gone out to be- 
tray him, the eleven were up in that guest cfcamber discussing which 
should be the greatest. There was a strife among them. My friends, 
let us ask God to search our hearts and see if we have got any of 
that spirit in us. Let us see if we have any of that spirit that 
Christ's disciples had. "Who shall be greatest?" God could not 
use them then. If a man is filled with the Holy Spirit, there is none 
of this spirit there; none of this jealous spirit, "who shall be great- 
est," because if a man is full of the Holy Spirit, then there is no room 
for the world, then there is no room for self, then there is no 
room for unholy ambitions and unholy desires, then there is 
no room for self-seeking and lauding self; but a man will have 
the mind that Christ had, when he is filled with that spirit. 
Let us ask God to keep us from all jealousy and from all un- 
holy ambition, and make us Christ-like in all our ways. " They 
shall learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and they shall 
find rest for their souls." It is a humble man that has rest for his 
soul; a man that is clothed with humility has rest; but the man that 
has not this humility of the spirit of Christ does not know what rest is. 
Some one sent me, a few weeks ago, a few lines written on that text, 
" Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart." "Humility, the 
fairest and loveliest flower that grew in Paradise, and the first that 
died, has rarely flourished since on mortal soil. It is so frail and so 
delicate a thing that it is gone if it but look upon itself; and they 
who venture to believe it theirs prove, by that single thought, they 
have it not." Oh, may God, give us this humility that we have been 
talking about, that each of us may be filled with this humility, so that 
God can shine through us. Let us have that hymn, "Oh, to be 
Nothing." We have sung it once or twice, but I don't think we have 
it in our hearts. It is easy enough to sing it, but to live in the power 
of it in our hearts is another thing; and then, if a man don't have 
the position he wants, he will not get angry or jealous, but will say, 
" Lord, lay me aside, and take some one else." I want Mr. Sankey 
to sing that hymn alone: 

Oh, to be nothing, nothing, 

Only to lie at his feet, 

A broken and emptied vessel. 

NOTHING TOO HARD FOR GOD. 

The passage which I select to-day is a part of the 32d chapter of 
Jeremiah, beginning with the 17th verse. "I prayed unto the Lord, 
saying, Oh, Lord God ! behold, thou hast made the heavens and the 



708 BIBLE READINGS. 

earth of thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there is noth- 
ing too hard for thee. Thou showest loving kindness unto thous- 
ands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of 
their children after them: The Great, The Mighty God, The Lord of 
Hosts, is his name. Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for 
thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men; to give 
everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruits of his 
doings; in which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, 
even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast 
made thee, a name, as at this day; and hast brought forth thy people 
Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and 
with a strong hand, and with a stretched-out arm, and with great 
terror. Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, 
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too 
hard for me? Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will give 
this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebu- 
chadnezzar, King of Babylon, and he shall take it." 

The thought I want to call your attention to is in that seventeenth 
verse. Jeremiah had great faith in God, and his prayer took hold of 
God. He says: "Ah, Lord God! behold thou hast made the heaven 
and the earth by thy great power and stretched-out arm, and there 
is nothing too hard for thee." Now, I would like to give this meet- 
ing to-day for the key-note of it, just that one sentence, there is 
nothing too hard for God. A great many things may seem very hard 
for us; but let us bear in mind that nothing is too hard for God. 
"Oh, Lord God! behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth 
by thy great power and stretched-out arm." We talk about Alex- 
ander the Great, and Frederick the Great; but what are all the men 
that ever lived, what is their power in comparison with God's power? 
Think how God created this world; think of its mighty rivers and 
mighty mountains, and its depths and its plains; and yet some 
one has said it is only a little ball thrown from the hand of the Al- 
mighty. They tell us that the sun is thirteen hundred thousand 
times larger than this world. Supposing that is true; then think of 
its mighty rivers and mighty mountains. Some one has said it is a 
ball of fire. Supposing that is true, what a mighty wonder it is! 
And we are told that there are eighty millions of other suns that 
have already been discovered, and two billions four hundred millions 
of other planets, and this is the smallest of them all; this is but a 
fringe about the universe, or a few outlying villages upon his great 
empire. And we are told that light travels at the rate of one hun- 
dred and eighty thousand miles a minute; and it takes five years for 
the light of the sun to reach the nearest planet. Now, if this is true, 
think of our great and our mighty God! Now, Jeremiah had been 
climbing up upon one of these mountain peaks and he said: "Oh, 
Lord God! behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy 



BIBLE READINGS. 709 

great power and stretched-outarm, and there is nothing too hard for 
thee." Now, if God has done all these things, how easy it is for 
him to convert your friends and bless them. It seems as if this very 
thought pleased the Lord, for here in this very verse it says: "Oh 
Lord God; behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy 
great power and stretched-out arm; and there is nothing too hard for 
thee." There is nothing too hard for him. Now let us lay hold of 
this truth, to-day. Let it sink down deep into our hearts, and as we 
' pray for ungodly men and those who are ridiculing these efforts, and 
ridiculing our prayers, let us get our eyes off them and lift our eyes 
to him who has all power in heaven and on earth. Let us bear in 
mind that nothing is too hard for God; and he delights in doing- 
hard things. Now, if we have faith, God is not going to disappoint 
us. We are going to see great and wonderful things; and these men 
who are bitterly opposed to these efforts may be here, in a little 
while, praising God with us. Infidels, scoffers and unbelievers, gam- 
blers, drunkards and vagabonds, are going to be reached by the 
mighty power of God. While these men are scoffing let us pray 
God that his Spirit may fall upon them. We, perhaps, cannot reach 
them personally; but we can by prayer. Now, he comes to Jere- 
miah, in the thirty-third chapter; "Moreover, the word of the Lord 
came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in 
the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the maker 
thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it; the Lord is his 
name; call unto me." 

Some of you may have wondered what good it will do to make 
these requests for prayer. But the Lord tells us that we are to make 
our requests known. People say, ""Does God answer prayer?" 
Well, he says so, and I will take his word for it. Now, my friends, 
let us call upon him; he has told us to do it. Let us pray for those 
who do not want our prayers; God is able to reach them. Let us 
pray for infidels and scoffers. There was a man when we were in 
London that got out a little paper called "The Moody and Sankey 
Humbug." And he used to come to the very doors of the place of 
meeting and sell the paper. But after a while the paper got about 
run out, and then he came to the meetings and made caricatures of 
what he saw. But he was converted, and got right up in the meet- 
ing, and confessed what he had been doing. Let us not give up a 
solitary man in Boston. God is able to reach these very man. A 
great many men who are opposed to this work are so because the 
Spirit of God is troubling them; they are already troubled. 

CASTING OUT DEVILS. 

The 9th chapter of the gospel according to Mark was read from 
the 14th verse: "And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great 



T10 BIBLE READINGS. 

multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And 
straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly 
amazed, and running to him saluted him. And he asked the scribes, 
What question ye with them? And one of the multitude answered 
and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a 
dumb spirit: and wheresoever he taketh him he teareth him, and he 
foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away; and I spake 
to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not. 
He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall 
I be with } T ou? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me. 
And they brought him unto him; and when he saw him, straightway 
the spirit tare him, and he fell en the ground and wallowed, foam- 
ing. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came 
unto him? and he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him 
into the fire, and into the waters to destroy him; but if thou canst 
do anything, have compassion on us and help us. Jesus said unto 
him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that be- 
lieveth. And straightway the father of the child cried out and said 
with tears, Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief. When Jesus 
saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul 
spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, 
come out of hkn, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, 
and rent him sore, and came out of him; and he was as one dead; 
insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the 
hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into 
the house his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast 
him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by 
nothing but by prayer and fasting." 

Here we find the disciples in trouble, and on the other hand the 
scribes, their old enemies, were of course rejoicing at their unsuc- 
cessful efforts to cast out this dumb devil; and I think that is really 
the state of the church now. Infidels stand outside laughing and 
scoffing, because the church has so little power. I have no doubt 
but that the disciples reasoned as a good many do now, that this 
case was too far gone — that it was a hopeless case. They said, Per- 
haps if he could only hear us — if we coald only speak to him — we 
might do him some good; or if he had the use of his tongue, if he was 
not dumb, so that he could tell them how he felt, they might help 
him. But as he had been so from a child, they gave him up as a 
hopeless case, like the hundreds and thousands that are given up 
now, because they do not belong to the church. They think they 
are beyond the reach of the church, and they cannot save them. 
They reason from a human standpoint; they cannot believe. But 
when they get their eyes off their human audience, and look at him 
who sits on the right hand of God, and remember all the power of 
the heavenly Savior, it is a very easy thing to reach these men 



BIBLE READINGS. 711 

that we look upon as hopeless cases. How many fathers and moth- 
ers there are who have become discouraged and despondent, because 
they think their sons are beyond their reach, that they have passed 
beyond mercy, and that there is no help and no mercy for them. Let 
us go to fasting and prayer. Let us find out what the trouble is. If 
it is want of faith, let us ask God to increase our faith. Let us 
say: "Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief." When this unbe- 
lief is taken from the church, it will be full of power. I want to 
read with this a passage in 2d Kings, 4th chapter, 26th verse: 

" Run, now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well 
with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? 
And she answered, It is well. And when she came to the man of 
God to the hill, she caught him by the feet; but Gehazi came near 
to thrust her away. i\.nd the man of God said: Let her alone, for 
her soul is vexed within her; and the Lord hath hid it from me, and 
hath not told me." I haven't any doubt but that this woman had 
been fasting; I believe she hadn't tasted a morsel since that child 
died. She desired a blessing. " Then," she said, " Did I desire a 
son of my Lord?" Did I not say, Do not deceive me? Then he 
said to Gehazi, Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and 
go thy way; if thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute 
thee, answer him not again ; and lay my staff upon the face of the 
child. And the mother of the child said, As the Lord liveth, and as 
thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and he followed 
her. And Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff upon the 
face of the child; but there was neither voice nor hearing. Where- 
fore he went again to meet him, and told him, saying, The child is 
not awaked. And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, 
the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore 
and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto, the Lord. And 
he went up and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his 
mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; 
and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child 
waxed warm. Then he returned and walked in the house to and 
fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him; and the child 
sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called 
Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunamite. So he called her. And when 
she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son. Then she 
went in and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and 
took up her son, and went out." 

I have no doubt but that this woman had been fasting, and had 
not eaten a morsel since the child died and wanted laying out. 
There is faith, and there is faith honored. There is the answer to 
prayer. But the thought I want to call your attention about this 
Shunamite woman is, that there was one thing she would not do. 
She would not trust in Elisha's old staff, nor in the servant. She 



712 BIBLE EETDINGS. 

got her eyes off the staff and the servant, and placed them on the 
Lord. 

I want to call your attention to one clause in that chapter of Mark 
that I read, in the 19th verse: "Bring him unto me." You have, 
perhaps, been bringing your sons and daughters to the church, and 
running after this or that man ; but the Lord says, " Bring him unto 
me." Have faith. Let us have faith in Christ. There are some 
"ifs"in the Bible that are the devil's "ifs." This man in Mark 
put the "if" in the wrong place. But the man in the 4th chapter 
of Luke put it in the right place. He said, '• If thou wilt, thou 
canst make me clean." The man in Mark got it in the wrong place; 
for he said "If Thou canst." Let us get the "if" out of the way — 
" Thou canst make me clean." God can do it. My friends, may 
God help us to-day to put the "if" in the right place. You know 
there is an if in there. There are some ifs in the Bible that belong 
to the devil, if you will allow me to speak of them in that manner. 
When the Lord used them, He put them in the right place. If you 
read the 5th chapter of Luke, you will find that he put the if in the 
right place. He said, " If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." 
Now, this man in the last chapter of Mark said, If thou canst do any- 
thing for us, we hope thou wilt. If He can, why we know He can. 
Let us say as the leper said, "Thou canst make me clean." Oh, my 
friends, may God help us to put the if in the right place. " If thou 
canst believe," all things are possible with God. It is an easy mat- 
ter for God to save souls in Boston; it is an easy matter to save all 
the drunkards in Boston ; to call back the wandering prodigals all 
over the country. Let us have faith in prayer. If our prayers are 
not answered, let us not call God to blame; let us not think He is 
responsible for our prayers not being answered. If we are anxious 
to have our sons and daughters saved, we have got to have faith. 
Let us begin to fast and pray; let us search our hearts, and see if 
there be any evil way in us. God does not regard iniquity; the 
Lord will not hear, much less answer him when he prays. Now let 
us see if fasting and praying will bring the blessing; let us see if we 
have faith to believe what the Lord has promised he would do. 
Again, let us look and see if it is in accordance with his word. The 
reason many of our prayers have not been answered is, because they 
have not been indited by the Holy Ghost. What do we want our 
sons and daughters converted for? Is it for his Son's glory? If it is, 
he will answer such prayers; for it is his delight to answer those 
prayers. 

Another thought about this wonderful story I have been reading 
here to-day is this: that the devil threw the man down as he was 
coming. How many have started to come to Christ, and the devil 
has tripped them up before they got there. A man told me, in the 
inquiry-room, that he went down from Boston to Philadelphia to at- 



BIBLE READINGS. 713 

■i 

tend the meetings there, in the hope to find Christ; but he got 
drunk soon after he got there, and did not go to the meetings at all. 
The devil tripped him up. And so a great many who had set their 
heart on coming to these inquiry meetinge are led away before they 
get there. And another thought is, that when the devil left him he gave 
him a blow that almost killed him; but the Lord raised him up. So 
it is with people who are just coming to Christ. And some who come 
act worse than they did before. Some women have come to me and 
said: "Mr. Moody, since I have been praying for my husband, he 
acts worse than he did before; he acts as though he had got seven 
devils in him." Sometimes, when the Spirit of God wakes up these 
men, they wake up ugly and very cross; but let us bear in mind 
that the Spirit of God can cast out these devils, as he did the dumb 
devil that was brought to him. Let the key-note of this meeting be 
" Bring him unto me; " and let us take in the arms of faith those of 
our friends and our relatives, and all who want to become Christians, 
and bring them to Christ. 

THE GOSPEL INVITATION. 

I will read from Matthew 11: 27: 

"All things are delivered unto me of my Father; and no man 
knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the 
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
him. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
will give you rest. Take my }^oke upon you, and learn of me; for I 
am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Luke 15th: "Then 
drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him; 
and the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth 
sinners, and eateth with them." The Pharisees would tell the truth 
now and then; and they never told a more truthful thing than that. 
That is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He came into the 
world for sinners. He came to seek and to save that which was 
lost; and so, when the Pharisees said this, they told the truth once, 
if they never did before. There is one more text that I want to 
refer to, in the 6th chapter of of John, 37: " Him that cometh unto 
me, I will in no wise cast out." 

Now when princes and kings of this earth generally call people 
round them, they generally call the great and mighty and the noble; 
but when the Prince of Peace was here, he called publicans and sin- 
ners; many of them were outcasts, whom most of the people would 
not associate with. He was all the time calling around him all 
classes. There is one passage of Scripture which is very precious 
to me, and that is, that Christ helped all men that had need of him. 
now if there is a man here to-day who has need of Christ, he will 



714 BIBLE READINGS. 

help him. Any man or woman in this assembly that needs Christ, 
can have him. He will give you all the help you need; I don't care 
what your besetting sin is. It may be your appetite for strong drink. 
Bring that to him; he has got power to take that from you. Now, 
a good many think they would like to come to Christ, but they want 
to get ready first; they want to lop off this sin and that sin, and stop 
swearing and drinking, and then they will be ready. That would be 
like a sick man waiting until he was well, and then sending for a 
physician; or like a blind man waiting until he recovers his sight, 
and then sending for a doctor. You bring your sickness and your 
blindness to Christ, and then he will help you. It is the sick that 
need a physician, and not those who are well. And if there is a man 
here troubled with any besetting sin, I don't care what it is, let him 
come to Christ, and he will help him; for he has promised, "Him that 
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." I like those / wills; 
they are all good. You cannot find a man that can honestly and 
truthfully say that he came to Christ and he didn't receive him, and 
he cast him out. No man living can say that; because he has re- 
ceived all that have come, and all that will come. 

There was a man in our late war, and as he lay upon his cot (he 
was a skeptical man), there was one of those silent messengers hang- 
ing on the wall of the hospital; and this was the text, "Him that 
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." One day he got a let- 
ter from his mother, and was so sick he could not read it, but the 
nurse read it to him; and this letter was an earnest appeal to her 
boy to accept of Christ. He was down there in the hospital, and she 
didn't know but he would die without her seeing him again; and she 
quoted that text to him: "Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise 
cast out." The dying man said: "That is very singular; there it is 
on the wall, and m}^ mother has written it." A day or two after he 
was much worse, and sinking rapidly; and he asked the nurse to 
read his mother's letter again. And when she got to that text, he 
said, "Did mother put that in the letter, 'Him that cometh unto me, 
I will in no wise cast out?' " " Yes," says the nurse. "And does 
the Bible say it?" " Yes." "And if mother says it and the Bible 
says it, it must be true." And, dear friends, he believed and receiv- 
ed Christ. 

It is true. Take it just as you are: " Him that cometh unto me, I 
will in no wise cast out." May God help every man in this assem- 
bly, and every woman to come with all their sins; and the Lord will 
take you to his loving bosom, and will hold you, and keep you until 
that day. 

DIVINITY OF JESUS. 

We come to-day to the 8th chapter of the gospel according to 
John. In this chapter Christ asserts his divinity; and I do not see 



BIBLE READINGS. 715 

tiow any one can read the 8th chapter of John and not believe in 
the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The next morning after he 
had been, as it were, driven out of Jerusalem, he came back into the 
Temple. It says in the last verse of the 7th chapter: " And every 
man went unto his own house. But Jesus went into the Mount of 
Olives." But early the next morning, he came into the Temple; 
and they brought a woman in to see what he would say should be 
done with her. He had been teaching that he had come not to con- 
demn, but to save. The law of Moses condemned this poor fallen 
woman to death; and now they tried to entangle him, and see what 
he would do with her. When he had put the test to these men, and 
they had all gone out, he said to her, " Neither will I condemn thee ; 
go, and sin no more," Moses or Elijah, or any of the prophets, could 
not have said that; no man living could have said that: "Neither do 
I condemn thee; go, and sin no more." In the 12th verse he says, 
" I am the light of the world." Moses could not say, I am the light 
of the world. 

Abraham could not say it; no other man could say that. I said 
to my little boy, seven years old, this morning, as I was reading this 
chapter, " Willie, who oould say that?" He answered; "Jesus." 
" Who else?" " God." " Who else?" " No one else." " I am the 
light of the world; if any man follow me, he will not walk in dark- 
ness, but will have the light of life." Who can give light but God? 
In the morning of creation, he said, "Let there be light;" and there 
was light. Now Christ comes, and proclaims himself the light of 
the world. It would be a great help to us in reading the Bible, just 
to get this into our minds, that Christ was God and man. Some- 
times he spoke as man, and sometimes as God. That gives us a key 
to the Holy Bible; but take it away, and I do not see how you are 
going to understand it. Without it, it is a sealed book. Some peo- 
ple accuse us of teaching that God died; but Christ died as a man. 
God never died, and never can die; it was the man that died. Men 
die; the Divinity never dies. Then he says again, "I am not alone;" 
"I go my way;" "I am from above." Who could say that but him? 
"I am from above; I am not of this world." Who else could say 
that, if he hadn't come down from the world above? "If ye believe 
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." " I speak to the world 
those things which I have heard of him." When did he hear them, 
if he hadn't come from the bosom of the Father? "When ye have 
lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that 
I do nothing of myself: but as my father has taught me, I speak 
these things." 

Then in the 30th verse: " As he spake these words many believed 
on him." How simple that was! As he stood there, speaking to 
them in the Temple, many were converted and believed on him. 
God received them right there, while he was speaking. How simple 



BIBLE READINGS. 



the conversions of the Bible are! Simply believing, simply receiv- 
ing. Then in the 36th verse: "If the Son, therefore, shall make 
you free, ye shall be free indeed." If he were not God, how was 
he going to make us free from sin? But, "If the Son, therefore, 
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." I think there are a 
good many of God's children who never have got to that verse. 
They don't know what freedom is. They are still asleep, and sunk 
in bondage. They are like Lazarus, who got out of the grave with 
his grave clothes on, bound hand and foot. The difficulty with 
those people is, that they are always looking in their own hearts to 
get freedom; but it is the truth which makes us free — the Word of 
God. Miss Smiley was telling about going down South, a few years 
after the war. She went to a hotel, and the room she was shown to 
was not very clean. She said to the colored woman who was there: 
" I would like to have you fix it up; I am from the North, and you 
know the Northern people set you free." She went away and came 
back in a little while; and it seemed as if half a day's work had 
been done. "Now," said the colored woman, " bees I free or beent 
I? My old master tells me I am not free; and 1 go out among the 
colored people, and they say I am free." There are a great many of 
God's people just that way; they do not know whether they are free 
or not. It is not a matter of feeling. The proclamation of Abra- 
ham Lincoln set that woman free; and so it is the proclamation of 
Uod's Word that makes us free; not that we feel this way or that 
way. If we w T ant liberty in Christ, we can have it. When he told 
them that, they said: "We are the descendants of Moses and Abra- 
ham; we have not been in bondage to anybody." And all that time 
they were under the Roman yoke. So, hundreds of men in Boston 
to-day, who are bound hand aud foot to .something in this world, do 
not want to become Christians, beeause they think they will not have 
their liberty. The truth will make you free. That is the only free- 
dom worth having: "and if the truth makes you free, you are free in- 
deed." Then again he said, " I speak that which I have seen with 
my Father." He talked about the mansions above, as freely as 
Queen Victoria's children would talk about the rooms in Windsor 
Castle. He wag familiar with those scenes. "But now ye seek to 
kiil me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of 
God." Then again he told them: "I proceeded forth from God;" 
that was his own testimony. Then again, " I tell you the truth." I 
tell it to you, it is the truth. " I honor my Father;" "I have come 
to honor him;" "I have come to do thy will, O God;" "I seek not 
my own glory; I seek to glorify my Father;" " I say unto you, if 
any man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Of course, he 
is not speaking about the death of the body, but about the death of 
the soul. " If any man keep my saying, he shall never see death." 



BIBLE READINGS. 717 

His words are the words of life: and if a man receives them, he will 
not die. 

Let us read these few verses closing this chapter. 

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my sayings he shall 
never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that 
thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou 
sayest, If a man keep my sayings, he shall never taste of death. 
Art thou greater than our Father Abraham, which is dead? And the 
prophets are dead; whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If 
I honor myself, my honor is nothing; it is my Father that honereth 
me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet ye have not known 
him; but I know him; and if I should say, I know him not, I shall 
be a liar like unto you; but I know him and keep his saying. Your 
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad. 
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and 
hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, j 
say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." 

This forever settles in my mind the question of the divinity of the 
Lord Jesus. " Before Abraham was, I am." How any man can 
read the gospel of John and be in any doubt about Christ's divinity, I 
cannot see. Abraham was gone hundreds of years; and yet, " Be- 
fore Abraham was, I am." " Then took they up stones to cast at 
him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the Temple, going 
through the midst of them, and so passed by." 

PRAYERS OF JESUS. 

I will just read a few verses of Scripture, and then the meeting will 
be thrown open. We want to hear from as many as possible, and 
we want a good deal of prayer. We felt that the meetings of the 
Tabernacle were too large; and we would rather have small meet- 
ings, where friends could pray. I do not believe there is any true 
revival that is not brought about by a good deal of prayer; and if 
we have a work of grace that is going to be deep and thorough in 
this city, we have got to have more prayer than we have had. I 
want to call your attention, to-day, to the prayers of Jesus Christ. 
Although he was God, yet he was man; as man he prayed, and as 
God he answered prayer. And he encouraged others to come to 
him with their burdens; and he was constantly praying, because he 
was an example to others. In the 3d chapter of Luke, 21st verse, 
we find that when he was baptized he was praying. Now, when all 
the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being bap- 
tized, and praying, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Ghost de- 
scended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him; and a voice came 
from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased." 



718 BIBLE READINGS. 

Then we read again in Luke, 9: 28, how he took Peter, James and 
John and went up into the Mountain of Transfiguration; and while 
he was praying, his countenance was transfigured, and there came 
a voice saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased." In John, 12: 27, we find him praying again; it was 
when they were about to kill him: "Now is my soul troubled; and 
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; butfor this cause 
came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there 
a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify 
it again." Then in Luke, 42, 43, we find him praying, and He sweat, 
as it were, great drops of blood, and as he prayed an angel appeared 
to Him and strengthened Him. And we find that these four times 
which are recorded, when He was praying he heard from heaven; it 
was really his prayers that opened heaven. As it was with Stephen, 
when he was dying he prayed, and the heavens opened before him. 
Now if we are going to have the windows of heaven opened, and the 
Spirit of God descending in mighty power upon this city, it is going 
to be in answer to prayer and earnest supplications. Then, in the 
6th chapter of Luke and the 12th verse, before he chose his disciples, 
it was a matter of prayer to him: "And it came to pass in those 
days that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all 
night in prayer to God " — continued all night. " And when it was 
day, He called unto him his disciples; and of them He chose twelve, 
whom also he named apostles." So the night before he chose those 
twelve that were to shake the world, and be a blessing to the world 
and establish the Church of God on earth, He spent that night in 
prayer. And so, my friends, if we are going to do a great work for 
God, we must spend much time in prayer; we have got to be closeted 
with God. We find him again at the grave of Lazarus; and He 
prayed before He called him forth. It was in answer to prayer that 
Lazarus was raised. 

And then, if you will turn into the 17th chapter of John, in that 
wonderful prayer of Christ, you will find seven requests there. We 
talk about the disciple's prayer as the Lord's prayer; really the 
Lord's prayer is this 17th chapter of John. That was his last prayer 
that has been recorded, except the one on the cross; and in this 17th 
chapter of John, there are seven requests. There is only one for 
himself; four for the disciples that were around him; and two for 
you and I, and for all that should believe on him afterwards. And 
then we find him saying to Peter, " I have prayed for thee that thy 
strength fail thee not." When Satan was to sift him, Christ had 
prayed for him; and how that must have cheered and encouraged 
Peter after his fall, to think that Christ had told him he was going to 
pray for him; and his prayers did prevail, and Peter was brought 
back. And then the last breath on the cross, just before he cried, 
" It is finished," and gave up the ghost ! It was a prayer, " Father, 



BIBLE READINGS. 719 

forgive them, for they know not what they do." He was a man of 
prayer; and let the business men of Boston imitate their Master. 
We that are Christians, let us imitate God, and let us lay hold on 
God in prayer to-day, that He may give us a great and mighty 
blessing. Let us all pray. 

LIFE, LOVE, PEACE, POWER, BOLDNESS. 

I will read a few verses from the 1st Epistle of John, 4th chapter, 
beginning at the 7th verse: 

" Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every- 
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth 
not, knoweth not God, for God is love. - In this was manifested the 
love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son 
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not 
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought 
also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If 
we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected 
in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because 
he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify 
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoso- 
ever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, 
and he in God. And we have known and believe the love that God 
hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in 
God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we 
may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, so are 
we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth 
out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made 
perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man 
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that 
loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, 
whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him,. 
That he who loveth God, love his brother also." 

In these few words I have read to you, there are a few thoughts I 
want to call your attention to; I might say five things, that are nec- 
essary for every Christian to have. The first is life. We get that 
in the 9th verse: "God sent his only begotten Son into the world, 
that we might live through him." Now, there is no life, no spirit- 
ual life, till we know Christ; or, in other words, Christ is that life 
himself. There are a good many people now that are troubled 
about the new birth; they want to know what it means. To be born 
again is to have Christ in the soul, that is the new birth; and with 
that life we serve God. And we cannot serve God till Christ is 
formed in us — the hope of glory. That is the life that all want. 
Our prayers are not prayers till Christ is there; with that life we 



720 BIBLE READINGS. 

serve him. Then the next thing we get is in the 10th verse, that sin 
is put away. That is peace. What every Christian wants is, peace 
to the soul. He gets that by knowing that sin has been atoned for, 
propititation made. Christ has forever settled the question of sin; 
it has been put away; we are at rest as we look back to Calvary, 
knowing the cross has put away sin. We are ready to serve God, 
because sin is out of the way. The next thing is in the 11th verse: 
" Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another," 
We have got to have love. You cannot do a man any good unless 
you love him. Let us see if we have life, peace, and love. The next 
thing is power. We get that in the 13th verse: "Hereby know we 
that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his 
Spirit." That is power. There is really no power without the Holy 
Ghost; it is Holy Ghost power that we want. We want the Holy 
Ghost resting on us for service. Many of you have passed through 
experiences of how easy it is to talk for God when the Holy Ghost is 
resting in you for service; and how hard it has been when you had 
no power. Perhaps sin has come between you and God, and, of 
course, then the power is gone. Therefore let us see that we have 
that qualification. Then the next thing is boldness. That is one of 
the traits that a great many lack, at the present time. There is so 
much scoffing and ridicule that many, if you will allow me the use 
of the expression, haven't backbone enough to stand up and confess 
Christ boldly, wherever their lot may be cast. We find that, in the 
17th verse: "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have 
boldness in the day of judgment." We want it now while Christ is 
being misrepresented and laughed about; and if we have it here, we 
will have in the day of judgment; for Christ is with us. We are on 
the Lord's side, and we are always in the majority when we are 
with God. The idea that there are only a few that serve God is a 
false one. Let us be f ill of boldness and courage. If a man is once 
forgiven he can look up and say, Heaven is my home; God is my 
Father; Christ is my Savior; and he has nothing to fear. Let us 
speak out boldly for Christ. 



PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray thee that thou wilt give us more 
and more of the compassion of Christ. We read from the very be- 
ginning that he was moved with compassion, as this good Samaritan, 
when he met this poor, wounded and dying man. O God, give us 
the spirit of the good Samaritan! May we go from this building and 
hunt up many to-night, and tell them of Christ and heaven. May 
we go to the homes of the poor drunkards; may we go to the homes 
and hearts of gamblers, the homes of the fallen, the despised and the 
outcast, and tell them of Christ and heaven. O Spirit of God! come 
down upon this assembly, and may the Church of God find out who 
their neighbors are. And, O God, we pray thee that they may be 
filled with the Spirit of Christ, and that they may go and tell others 
the story of the cross. And, O God, we pray thee that hundreds 
and thousands in this city may be working to win souls to Christ. 
We pray that great things may be done in Boston the coming Sab- 
bath. And not only on the Sabbath, O God; we will not wait for 
the Sabbath, but to-night, as thy servants meet in the different 
churches, O God, do thou meet with them! and we pray thee that 
there may be a quickening in the churches all over Boston, and all 
around in its vicinity. Do thou wake them up, that there may be a 
great work for them to do. And we pray that the day may be not 
far distant when many souls may be brought to Christ, and when 
this building shall be filled with those who are lost and want to be 
saved; and that the cry may go out from many anxious hearts. 
"What shall I do to be saved?" O Spirit of God, come down upon 
the assembly now, that the hearts of God's people may be made one; 
and that they may all be brought to God and all be glorifiers and 
honorers of Christ! May we be holy ourselves and consecrate to him 
our best service. Now we pray for a numerous meeting to-night. 
May these Christian young men be fired with the Holy Spirit from on 
high. May they be like Joshua, strong in the faith, men of God. May 
the Christian young men of Boston be known for their piety. And O 
Lord, we pray thee that drunkards by hundreds and thousands may 
be saved by the regenerating power of God. May they be touched 
by the Holy Spirit, and may power be given them to overcome their 
terrible appetite. We pray that this meeting we had this noon may 
be the means of saving many, and that thou wilt bless it, as well as 
those we have in the future. We pray, O God, that many may go 
out every day and pray for these men, and show them the way of 
721 46 



*•>- PRATERS BY MR. MOODY. 

salvation. In the saloons, the billiard saloons, O God, mayst thou 
pour out thy mercy and make many men tremble for what they were 
about to do. O God, as we tarry at the second meeting, we pray 
that the Spirit of God may come upon us, and that this great audi- 
ence may be hushed by the power of God. May we hear the voice 
of Jesus to-night! and as we listen may we be ready to go out 
and do his bidding. For thy name's sake. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this beautiful Sabbath 
morning. We thank thee for the privilege we have of meeting with 
these friends and talking with them about thee and about thy work. 
Now, O Lord Jesus, give us a love for souls, give us a burning pas- 
sion for souls. May that be the desire of our hearts; to lead some 
soul out of darkness to the light, out of bondage to liberty, to lead 
some poor wanderer out of the darkness of this world to the blessed 
gospel.' Thou hast witnessed this scene, these hundreds who have 
said that by thy grace they will try to lead one soul to thee. God, 
make us wise in all our work, and help us to bring some soul to thee. 
Help us to talk to people and to go right to work; and may we speak 
with power to these that have risen here and said they want God. 
May they not leave this house until their names are written in the 
Lamb's book of life, until they know that they have passed from 
death unto life. Make bare thine arm to help us, and may this be a 
token of a great and mighty harvest in the city of Boston. Quicken 
every one of those that have risen. God help us to pray for each 
other and around our family altars; in our closets, may there be one 
wail of united prayer to God; and may we see wonders and be made 
successful in winning souls to thee. Bless these teachers, as they 
go to their classes to-day; speak through them, use them in winning 
some souls to thee. We pray for thy blessing to rest upon the super- 
intendents; may the grace of God come upon them afresh, and may 
the mighty power of God rest down upon them. And as they 
stand before their schools, may they be quickened with the mighty 
power of God, and thy Spirit speak through them. We pray for the 
ministers. Be with them; and as they stand up to preach thy 
blessed truth, may the Spirit of God speak through them and bless 
their efforts. And as we come together to-morrow, may there be 
glad tidings coming in from all parts of Boston; and may the work 
commence right here this morning, and flow over the city. And 
Christ shall have the praise. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may rest on each 
one of us who profess to be Christians. O Lord, help us to love 
Christ more than we love ourselves: help us to be more like him in 
our way of life. Help us, O Lord, to walk humbly, prayerfully, con- 
sistently on, in the dust of our pilgrimage so that men may not stum- 
ble over us and say, "They profess only; they never do anything." 
O God, help us to live up to what we profess, through thee, in Christ 



PEAYEES BY ME. MOODY. 723 

Jesus, and may it be shown in each one of us. We pray for any 
that may have back-slidden in this assembly, who may have wandered 
from God. This day fill them with regret that they ever turned 
their backs on thee. We pray that thou, O Lord, may meet them 
this day in this Tabernacle, and turn their faces to thee again. O 
God, they have wandered from thee; but do thou grant that this day 
they may meet the Lord of eternal life. We pray for those also 
without God and without hope. We pray for the unsaved in this 
assembly. O God, let them meet thee here and now. O God! toucli 
their hearts. Open their eyes, that they may see their sin and know 
how great the sin is that possesses them; for Satan has blinded their 
eyes, O God, and they have abandoned thee. Make them to know 
how hard their hearts are. Open their eyes this day. O Lord, may 
the angels rejoice over souls saved this afternoon. May the wan- 
derers, who have drawn back and rejected thee for years, open the 
door of their hearts and welcome thee in. We pray that the power 
coming forth from this meeting may be felt on the shores of eternity. 
O God of Adam and God of our Fathers, hear our cry and bring sal- 
vation; and may many this day receive the gift of God, and come 
down to this house and testify. We pray that thy blessing may rest 
on these mothers gathered here to-day. If they have children, who 
are rushing down to death and ruin, may God hear their cry, and 
may their children be turned from darkness to light, from Satan to 
thee. We pray that thy blessing may rest richly on those who have 
gone to the overflow meeting. May the Spirit of God be poured out 
on this church and on all thy churches; and may many be drawn to 
thee and love thee. May the work go on through Boston, we pray 
thee, and all through New England; and Christ shall have the glory. 
Amen. 

Our heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may rest upon 
each one of us gathered here now and as we go hence. We pray 
that the Spirit of the Lord God may come down upon each one of 
us, and that we may each one of us turn away from every sin. O 
God, forgive us for our selfishness, forgive us for the stint of self- 
seeking. O God, keep us from this way, so that we may not be 
seeking sacred things for ourselves, but that we may bow ourselves 
in the dust before thee to-day. Help us to draw near to thee. We 
pray thee that thou wilt give us power from on high, for thou dost 
remember our frame; thou knowest that we are dust, and thou 
knowest how prone we are to wander. O God, give us the victory 
over ourselves; give us grace from above every day and hour to 
glorify thee. We pray now for thy blessing to rest upon us as we go 
hence. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we praise thee for thy blessed Word. We 



724 PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 

thank thee that thy Son didst formerly come down into this world ; 
that He did so use his mighty power while on earth that he has 
power over devils and unclean spirits; that He can by a word cast 
out devils, and that He can save our sons and daughters, can save 
our children, can save our unsaved friends. O God, increase our 
faith to-day ! O God, we pray that thou wilt come down upon this 
town with the power of thy word, and that we may have strong faith 
in thee and thy promises. We pray thee that if any evil influence, 
or if our sins keep back the great and mighty blessing that we want 
in this city, we pray that thou wilt bring it to light. We pray that 
the Holy Spirit may reveal to each one of us all our sins, that we 
may turn away from them and hate them with a perfect hatred; that 
thy Spirit may came with power upon our hearts and fill them with 
holy desires. O God, we pray thee that thy blessing may rest on al 1 
the churches of New England, upon this day of fasting am 
prayer. We pray that thy blessing may rest on all the fathers and 
mothers closeted with thee to-day, as they pour out their hearts in 
prayer for their children. O God, hear and answer their prayer, 
and may the joyful tidings of souls redeemed be coming in from all 
over New England before long. Let the summons of grace be 
everywhere heard, that the wilderness may blossom and the solitary 
places be made glad. O God, we pray thee that the churches in New 
England may be blest, that the mothers, heartbroken on account of 
their children, may be comforted, and may those who were in dark- 
ness see the blessed light of the sun. O God, come in power upon 
us, and pass through New England, that a cry may be raised — hear 
ye in Boston — "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." O God, hear our 
supplications here to-day, and answer our prayers; answer the many 
prayers that are going up to thee. Come, Holy Spirit, in thy mighty 
power, and convict our hearts of sin, and melt them and turn them 
from darkness to light. Amen. 

Our heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may rest upon 
the words that have been spoken, and that the truth may be carried 
home to the hearts of the people and that they may seek the Lord, 
this night, while he may be found, and call upon him while he is 
near. Bring back the wanderers. Oh, may the prayers of thy people 
be answered, and may there be a great harvest of souls here to-night. 
Go with us now, as we go to the inquiry room. May there be hun- 
dreds seeking the kingdom of God. O God of grace, hear our prayer, 
answer our cry, and save scores and hundreds to-night. (Amen! 
Amen!) We pray for the young men's meetings. May the Spirit 
of God come upon them, and a great army of young men be raised 
up to go out and publish the tidings of salvation to perishing men. 
O God, hear our prayer, answer our cry, and save souls, that Christ 
may be glorified. Amen. 



PEAYEES BY ME. MOODY. 725 

Our heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing- may rest upon 
every one in this assembly. May we see hundreds to-night flock- 
ing into the kingdom of God. We pray for the young men who are 
just starting out on the voyage of life. Many of them are ambitious; 
many of them want to make a name; many of them are seeking 
wealth and pleasure and position. O God! may they seek thy king- 
dom to-night. If there is any poor drunkard here, may he give up 
his cup and seek the Lord. Oh, may there be many who shall turn 
to Christ and live. Help those fathers and mothers who have un- 
saved children to pray now. Help these husbands to pray for un- 
converted wives, and these wives to pray for unconverted husbands. 
Heavenly Father, we know we may plant and others may water, but 
thou must give the increase. We cannot bring one soul into thy 
kingdom. O Son of God, let thy pitying eye rest on every lost soul 
here to-night. We pray thee, that they may no longer resist the 
Holy Ghost. Let this unequal warfare cease to-night. Wilt thou 
go with us, as we go to yonder church ? May it be crowded with 
earnest seekers. May many cry out, 'What shall we do to be saved?' 
We pray that thy blessing may rest upon the young men's meeting. 
May the HoJy Spirit be there, leading young men away from the 
doubts and temptations of this great city to the Lamb of God, that 
taketh away the sins of the world. And now, Holy Father, we once 
more lift up our hearts in prayer for a great blessing on the meeting 
to-morrow at 12 o'clock. O Son of God, may these poor drunkards 
hear how they shall be saved. Yea, may they believe to-night on 
the Lord Jesus and be saved. May they not wait until to-morrow. 
Oh, may there be a shout in the camp of the King to-morrow. May 
hundreds of drunkards be reclaimed to-morrow. O Son of God, visit 
this city of Boston; shake it to its very centre, and turn the hearts 
of the people back to thyself. And thy Son shall have the praise 
and the glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may rest upon 
everyone here that loves the Lord Jesus Christ; and we pray that 
thou wilt increase our faith to-day. Give us a strong faith in thee 
and in thy Word. Help us to realize what we have read about thee, 
that nothing is too hard for thee. We know that thou art able to 
reach infidels, scoffers, pantheists and atheists; that thou canst reach 
the abandoned and fallen and lift them up, and purify them in the 
precious blood of thy Son. And we pray that thou wilt do great 
things here in Boston during the coming days; may they be days of 
thy power. We ask not for the power of man, but for the power of 
God. May we have the Holy Ghost power in all our meetings. We 
pray that the Spirit of the living God may be here; and if there are 
any men or women that have come into this meeting who are 
thoughtless about their souls, we know that God is in our midst and 



726 PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 

may they so realize it, that there shall be a cry going up from the 
camp, from these scoffers and these infidels, asking, What shall I do 
to be saved? We pray that the fear of God may fall upon Boston, 
and upon the hearts of the people. We thank thee for what we saw 
in the inquiry-room last night. We thank thee that thou hast com- 
menced the work in the hearts of the people, and for the cry already 
coming up of, "What must we do to be saved ?" Move right along 
*in thy mighty power; and may the day be not far distant when there 
shall be a great multitude saved in Boston. And may the waves of 
salvation go out of this city all over the land; and may all New 
England be reached. May there not be a town in New England 
but shall receive a blessing from on high. We pray that on the day 
specially set apart for fasting and prayer there may be a prayer go- 
ing up from many a closet and family altar to-morrow that shall 
reach heaven. May we not limit thy power O God, but expect 
great and mighty things. If there are fathers and mothers anxious 
for unsaved children, may they spend to-morrow morning in fasting 
and prayer; and they in their prayer say, "Search us O God and 
see if there be any evil way in us. Turn us away from evil things 
so that thou mayest hear and answer our prayers; for thou hast said 
that, if we regard and cherish iniquity in our hearts, thou wilt not 
hear and answer prayer. Help us each and every one to turn away 
from every sin, that we may lift up clean hands to thee, and our 
hearts be pure in thy sight, so that thou wilt answer our supplica- 
tions. We pray for heaven'g blessing upon the woman's meeting 
to-day. May the power of God be in that meeting. And we pray 
that the power of God may also be manifested at the young men's meet- 
ing, which is to take place this evening, and also for the meeting 
here this afternoon at 3 o'clock. When we shall talk about the Holy 
Spirit, let the Holy Ghost come down upon us and remain in our 
midst; and may our hearts be all on fire with the holy fire; and 
Christ shall have the praise and the glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for sending Christ into this 
world to seek and save that which was lost. O Son of God! we 
thank thee that thou didst come for us, and thou hast laid down thy 
life for the sheep, Now we pray, O God, that every lost soul in 
this building may come home to-night; may they no longer reject 
the Lord of all grace; may they no longer reject him who came to 
seek and to save them. Help them this night, while they are try- 
incr to receive Christ in their hearts. May this be the hour and this 
the night they may be brought unto salvation. We pray that thy 
blessing may rest upon the words spoken in such weakness. We 
pray that the Spirit of the Lord may carry them home in power; 
that there may be many rise up and be drawn to God by these meet- 
ings; and that the Spirit of the Lord may be poured out to-night 



PRAYERS BY ME, MOODY, 727 

without measure upon this assembly. We pray that the Holy 
Spirit may touch every heart here to-night with a sense of their true 
condition, that they may no longer be blinded by sin, but that their 
eyes may be opened; that the blessed Savior, in all his glory and 
loveliness, they may this night see, led by the gift of faith, standing 
with outstretched arms knocking at the door of their hearts, and say- 
ing, " Open, and I will come in." May the Spirit of God speak to 
every heart here to-night. I have tried to speak to the heart of this 
people to-night, and have failed. O Son of God, do thou speak! 
May there be many of the lost who shall be found to-night. By the 
power of the Highest, may they be saved! Then when the voice of 
man shall be hushed, may the gentle, mild voice of Jesus be heard 
saying: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will, 
let him hear my voice and open the door and I will come in and sup 
with him and he with me." O Son of God, knock at the door of the 
hearts of the unsaved here to-night. May they hear that mild, gentle 
knocking. May they hear that heavenly voice, and may they open 
the door just now, and see and welcome, thrice welcome, the Son 
of God in their hearts. O Spirit of the living God, come upon this 
assembly; give us one touch from heaven just now. May the dead 
live; may the lost be found, and may the wanderers return home. 
Mayst thou come to the young men's meeting to-night; may the 
power of the Lord be felt in that meeting; and may the young men 
turn unto thee and live. Come with us, O Lord, to the inquiry- 
rooms! May the Spirit of the Lord God be with us, and may many 
believe on the Lord God, this night, and be saved; and Christ shall 
have the praise and the glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee that we have come and given 
our time at this noon-tide hour, to pour out our hearts in prayer to 
thee for these requests that have been read before us. We pray for 
these sons and these daughters, for these husbands and these fathers, 
and for these wanderers, and for all those who have been brought 
before us to-day. O God, hear our cry, for thy Son's sake, and an- 
swer our prayer, and the prayers of these dear friends for the un- 
saved. We know how sin has blinded them, how Satan has deceived 
them. We pray thee, O God, that thou wilt come and open their 
eyes, and show them their true condition, and plead with them for 
their salvation. We pray heaven's blessing to rest on these fathers 
and mothers who have come at this hour to pray, many with sad and 
heavy hearts — hearts burdened for the loved ones; and may they 
cast their burden on the Lord Jesus Christ. Help them, O God, to 
make known their requests unto thee to-day; and while they are 
praying, may the answer come. May these friends for whom they 
are praying be saved. We pray that thy blessing may rest on all 
that was said and sung here and in the pulpits of Boston yesterday. 



728 PEAYEES BY ME. MOODY. 

May it be sown in good soil and spring up and bear fruit abundantly; 
and may hundreds and thousands be turned to thee. O Spirit of the 
Master, let thy work go on mightily in this city, and turn many from 
darkness to light. Now we pray that the words spoken here yester- 
day may be remembered. May thy word not return to thee void, but 
accomplish that for which thou didst send it. We pray that thy 
blessing may rest upon what was done here yesterday morning and 
afternoon, in the inquiry-room. May those who have not found peace 
find it now; while they are pouring out their hearts in prayer may 
the answer come, and may they be saved and redeemed by the pre- 
cious blood of Christ. We thank thee for that blessed meeting of yes- 
terday. Grant that many may rise up in eternity and thank God 
that he has led them to these meetings. Now we come to ask a bless- 
ing upon the meeting that is to take place here to-night. Bless, we 
pray thee, Mr. Cook, who is to preach. May the Spirit of God come 
upon him and anoint him with power from on high; and mayst thou 
give him physical strength and power; and grant that the Spirit may 
speak through him to-night, that many hearts may be broken, and 
the cry may arise from husbands and brothers and friends, " What 
shall I do to be saved ?" May the King be with us to-night in the 
camp, and may his presence be felt, and may many be drawn to God. 
We pray thee that thy blessing may rest upon the friends meeting 
inquirers, that they may explain to them the way of the Lord 
and how to be saved for Christ. Give us wisdom to-night from on 
high, and teach us the way of truth and life as it is seen in Christ; and 
may the work in Boston spread and deepen and extend all over New 
England; and Christ shall have the praise and the glory. Amen. 

O God, thou art in this builidng; help us all to realize it. Thou 
hast made this place terribly solemn to-night on account of thy pres- 
ence. And now, O thou God of heaven, thou who didst find Adam 
in Eden, do thou find every one of his sons to-night in this building. 
May every one of us who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus 
Christ act up to what we profess. May our eyes be opened to know 
where we stand, so that we may see ourselves, if we will, in the light 
of eternity. O God, keep us from self deception — from professing 
what we do not believe. Now, we pray for the wanderers here to- 
night; those that have backslidden; O God, call them home to- 
night; bring them back to the fold they have wandered from; may 
they return this night and this hour to the Lord and be saved. Now, 
we pray for those without God and without hope in the world. Oh, 
thou God of heaven, have pity upon them. May the Holy Spirit re- 
veal unto them the blackness of their own hearts. Open their eyes, 
O God, that they may see, and point to them the way. Thou knowest 
how Satan has blinded them: how their wicked life has hardened 
their hearts. O Spirit of the loving God, come down upon this 



PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 729 

assembly to-night. May one wave of united prayer go up from this 
assembly. May men be crying out on the right hand and on the 
left, "Lord what shall I do to be saved?" Speak, Lord; speak to 
every heart here to-night. We have spoken and failed; O God, do 
thou speak. May every ear be unlocked, every eye be opened, 
every hard heart be softened to hear thy gospel to-night! O Lord 
Jesus Christ, while we are waiting here to-night in silence, may thy 
voice be heard. May there be many here who may hear the mild 
and tender voice of Jesus say, " Come unto me all ye that are weary 
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." May the weary find 
rest to-night; may the blind find their sight to-night, and may the 
hearts of infidels be touched and the hearts of skeptics be moved, 
and may there be many that shall be born into thy kingdom to-night. 
O God, hear our cry and answer our prayer, for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray thee to open our darkened ears 
that we may understand thy word; and may the truth sink down 
deep into all our hearts. May every one within these walls become 
partakers of the grace of God. We pray that to-day thou wilt give 
us wisdom and light. O God! teach us how to break the bread of 
life to this perishing multitude; and may there be many to-day cry- 
ing to God for mercy. Grant that many to-day may be willing to 
accept of Christ,! to accept of the unspeakable gift of God. We 
pray for thy blessing to rest on all those who have latelv come out 
on thy side. May they grow in grace and wisdom and knowledge, 
and not turn back to the dark world they have oome from. And we 
pray for those that have been brought by the Spirit under the con- 
viction of sin. May the way be made so plain to-day that they may 
now lay hold of eternal life and live. And thy name, blessed Savior, 
shall have the praise and glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee for all the blessings we have 
received from thy bountiful hand during the weeks we have passed 
within these walls. We thank thee for all thou art doing in our 
midst. And now we come again to pray that thou wilt do greater 
things to-night than any night we have met here. We pray that 
the Spirit of prayer may be in this assembly; that the spirit of curi- 
osity may be laid aside, and that there may be one united wave of 
prayer go to heaven to-night, that thy Word may be blest to all that 
are strangers to grace. We know that we cannot raise their dead 
souls to the light of life; we cannot give the blind their sight, nor 
make the deaf hear, nor the dumb speak. But we pray that the 
Holy Spirit to-night may unstop the deaf ears, that they may hear 
the glorious news of the gospel to-night. We pray for those who are 
weary and heavy laden, that they may cast down their burdens at the 
feet of Jesus; and that they may hear the meek and gentle voice of 



730 PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 

the Lord Jesus saying, "Come unto me all ye that are weary and 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest," May the weary find rest 
here to-night; and if there are any that are heavy laden on account 
of sin, may they accept the Lamb of God to-night, who taketh away 
the sin of the world. May they look to him as their Lord and 
Savior. O Lord, we pray that the scales may fall from their eyes, 
and that they may see the Son of God, in all his glory and loveli- 
ness. In this hour, in this assembly, there may be some who have 
friends who have fallen; some who are mourning over loved ones 
stricken down by death; others there maybe who are struggling 
with the evil one to-night, disheartened and discouraged. O Son of 
God thou blessed Savior, wilt thou reveal thyself to each one, that 
they may cast their burdens upon thee to-night, and lift up their 
hearts to thee for thy blessing. We pray that every heart may be 
open to-night, and be ready to receive the blessing from on high; that 
every hungry and thirsty soul may be brought to the waters of 
eternal life, and be filled. May thy blessing rest, O Lord, upon 
these inquirers here to-night, seeking to find the way to Jesus. May 
the power of the Holy Spirit be revealed to them to-night; and may 
they accept thee as their Savior. We pray that thy blessing may rest 
upon the meeting to-morrow noon, and those who come here to pray 
for the intemperate. May a power from on high come upon those men 
and set them free, and may their fetters be snapped asunder. May 
the spirit of the Lord God come upon these men in the city of Bos- 
ton who are hastening down to a drunkard's grave and making their 
homes dark and desolate. O Lord, look in pity upon them, and 
stretch out thy right arm and save them. May we see wonderful 
things here to-morrow, O Son of God. Plead thy cause and make 
bare thy arm to save; and thy name shall have the praise and the 
glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may rest on each 
one in this assembly to-night. We pray thee that the careless may 
heed the words spoken here to-night; that the indifferent may be 
aroused from their sins; and when they go home may they ponder 
on the revelation of the law of which they have heard, and at last may 
they be led to look upon the Lord as their Savior and Master. O 
Lord God of grace, hear our prayer; answer our cry and save souls 
to-night by the hundreds and thousands. We ask thy blessing on 
the words spoken to-night. We know there may be many here with 
murder in their hearts, but may the words spoken burn down deep 
into their hearts, till they repent and are saved; and may the power 
of God be felt throughout this assembly to-night. We ask thy bless- 
ing on all the meetings to follow this service — the boys' inquiry- 
meeting, the young men's meeting in the Berkeley Street Church; 
and as we go to the Clarendon Street Church, may the captives of 



PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 731 

sin we find there go free. And thy name shall have the praise and 
the glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we pray that thy blessing may rest upon 
all that have assembled in this hall at this hour; and that every man 
in this assembly that is without God and without hope in this dark 
world may be convicted of his sin at this hour. We pray that the 
Holy Ghost may do his work; and that there may be many that shall 
look back, in after years, to this hour and this hall, as the time and 
place where they became children of God and heirs of eternal life. 
We pray that thou wilt bless them; and wilt thou bless the gospel 
that shall be spoken this afternoon, and may it reach many hearts. 
May there be many led by the Spirit of God, this day, to the cross 
of Christ, there to cast their burden and their guilt upon him who 
came into the world to put away the sins of the world by the sac- 
rifice of himself. And may there be many here who shall hear the 
loving voice of the Good Shepherd saying unto them, " Come unto 
me all ye that are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest;" and may those that are burdened and heavy laden find rest in 
Christ to-day. May those that are cast down on account of their 
sins, this day be lifted up by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And, O 
God, we pray thee that thou wouldst snap the fetters that bind them 
and set the poor bondsmen free to-day; and may this be the day 
that they shall come unto thee. And thy name shall have the power 
and the glory forever. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee that thou dost answer prayer; 
that thou didst hear the cry of Saul, when from the depths of the 
heart he prayed "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " We thank 
thee that thou didst hear the prayer of the poor Publican, " God be 
merciful to me a sinner," and didst send him to his house justified; 
that thou didst save Peter, as he was sinking in the water, when he 
cried unto thee, " Save, Lord, or I perish ! " O God, there are many 
here who are sinking in the waters of affliction and trouble. In their 
darkness and trial, O Son of God, help them; and as they cry unto 
thee, reach out thine almighty hand and save them. May the rich 
blessing of thy salvation fall upon them as they cry, with the thief 
on the cross, " Lord, remember me;" and may many hearts be led to 
the Savior and profess Christ and him crucified. And help us, who 
call ourselves by thy name, O Lord, to love thee more. May we be 
as beacon lights in this dark world, so that none may stumble be- 
cause of us. Son of God, advance thy kingdom here; and as we 
draw near the close of these meetings, hear us as we once more lift 
up our hearts to thee in prayer, that these closing meetings may be 
the best we have ever had. We pray that every unsaved soul here 
may accept salvation to-night. O Lord, open the eyes of all such to- 



732 PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 

night. Cause the scales to fall from their eyes, that they may see r 
as did Saul, the power of God. Be with us as we go to yonder in- 
quiry-room; bless the after meetings abundantly; and thy name shall 
have the praise and the glory. Amen. 

Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee that thou hast made the way 
of life so plain, and hast said that all may be saved by trusting in 
thee. We pray that all this vast assembly here to-night may put 
their trust in thee. If any man who is a sinner shall come to thee 
this night with all his sins and lay them at thy feet, and dost trust 
thee, thou wilt put them away. We pray for all these fathers and 
mothers not born of the spirit, that they may put their trust in thee; 
and may these Christians this night, while we pray, be led to lay 
hold of the Lord Jesus and live, and may they commence anew to 
trust thee, and may they gather their children into the ark and fold of 
Christ, that they may be with them in glory. We pray that thy 
blessing may rest richly on all who are gathered here this hour. As 
we go to the inquiry-room tonight, mayst thou go with us; and give 
us heavenly wisdom to-night to point these souls in the way to Christ. 
And as we talk with them, may there be many who may believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ to-night and be saved. May many have their 
names written in heaven, to-night. O Son of God, we pray that thy 
arm may be bared to save these precious souls. Thou knowest how 
sin deceives them, how Satan blinds them, how they are made cap- 
tives and led astray. Oh, may the Spirit of God come upon this as- 
sembly, may the power of the Holy Spirit fall upon us now, and 
make this place terribly solemn on account of thy presence. We 
pray for the scoffers and the skeptics here to-night, who are making 
light of what they hear. May some arrow from God's Word sink 
down into their hearts, so these lost and ruined ones may cry to God 
for mercy, to-night. We pray for all those who have come here out 
of curiosity. May the Spirit of God search them out to-night, and 
lead them from their sins to thee, from themselves to Christ. We 
pray that thou wilt bless us now as we separate; and if we never 
meet this audience again on the shores of time, may we meet at last 
at thy right hand, where is peace forever. May thy blessing rest 
upon all these meetings to-night; the boys' meeting, the men's meet- 
ing, the inquiry meeting, and Christ shall have the praise and the 
glory. Amen. 

MR. SANKEY'S PRAYER. 

O God, we ask thy blessing upon all before us, but wilt thou es- 
pecially bless our dear brother who is now passing through the deep 
waters of affliction. Grant, O Lord, that when he is tempted by the 
evil one away from the home of that little one who has passed through 



PRAYERS BY MR. MOODY. 733 

the gate, that he may see that to yield he must give up meeting his 
dear little one in the heavenly home. O God, may he receive grace 
from thee. There is not a man here but needs Christ, and we come 
to thee to-day, O our Father, that Jesus may come to every one here. 
We pray for those who have come here not expecting a great bless- 
ing. May our hearts be singing and go on through life singing 
praises unto thee. May the new life be planted here, O God, and 
as the beautiful golden hours go flitting away, may they be full of 
blessings. We ask it all for the dear Redeemer's sake. Amen. 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

HELD AT BOSTON, MARCH 14 AND 15, 1877. 

While the morning was decidedly cold in temperature and cheer- 
less in its aspect, the opening session of the New England Chris- 
tian Convention, beginning at 10 o'clock, was very well attended, 
some 3500 persons in all being present at that hour. The delegates 
appeared to be, for the greater part, people who had reached or had 
passed the noon of life. 

HOW CAN THE NON- CHURCH- GOERS BE REACHED? 

The Rev. G. C. Lorimer was called upon by Mr. Moody to open 
the question before the meeting — " How can the non-church-goers 
be reached?" Dr. Lorimer spoke a few words of welcome to the 
delegates present, and entered at once upon the discussion. He 
said: It is claimed by some that a new and modified gospel is need- 
ed; but he contended that the old gospel, plainly preached, will be 
always the best thing. A modified gospel has already been tried, 
with a vengeance, here in New England; and it has done very little. 
Men hungering for spiritual bread do not need a new bread, any 
more than we in this region, winter-bound as we are, need a new 
spring. We want only that spring which comes to us, with its fresh- 
ness, after every winter. The gospel that has been given to us is 
the instrument that can open the consciences of men; and when 
that is done, the way of reaching men is attained. In the domain 
of conscience, the minister is God's anointed messenger. The 
speaker alluded to the sermons of humanitarian preachers as giving 
ideas and inspiration for integrity in life; but when the soul is hun- 
gering after spiritual nourishment, their preaching does not satisfy. 
Again, it is said that we need a new architecture. Dr. Lorimer de- 
scribed, in a few words, the differing ideas in regard to the size, form 
and character of church buildings, but said that these things do 
not really affect the question of attendance upon public worship. 
What is needed is a warm welcome. We must make visitors to our 
churches feel at home with us. The speaker gave a very amusing- 
description of how a dapper church usher is apt to receive an ill- 
looking, ill-clad man, who happens to respond to some Christian's 
invitation to come to the place of worship. He concluded by telling 
a case which recently occurred in this city, where a lady worth a mil- 
lion and a half was unable to hire a pew of the sexton or treasurer 
because she was plainly dressed. His application of all his remarks 

734 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 735 

was that it is the spirit of the church which draws people into it; 
and unless the people want everybody, it is useless for ministers or 
any one else to try to get them. 

Rev. R. R. Meredith said the question was a very broad one to set- 
tle in five minutes. Throughout our cities there was a black band 
designating our population who never enter a church, and we don't 
know whether our sermons are dry or juicy, and the fact is potent; 
and that is, up to the present time, they are not reached. It was 
not because ministers tried to reach them. Every once in a while 
some one hires a hall, say music hall, and draws three or four thou- 
sand people, and then the shout goes out that the masses have been 
reached; but upon entering the hall, we find that the so-called masses 
are people drawn from other churches, and the same black band still 
remains. Christ gives us the key to unlock the problem. We must 
go out into the hedges and by-ways, and compel them to come in. 
Individual effort will do it. 

J. Russell Bradford, Esq., President of the Congregational Club, 
said that we have in all our churches a pure gospel preached; and 
we have a faithful ministry. Addressing the laymen, he said that 
they have a responsibility laid upon them, which they must not look 
to the ministers to lift away. The laymen must go out into the 
world animated by an earnest Christian spirit, and urge all to come 
into the churches. 

Rev. D. W. Waldron argued that when people's souls were bur- 
dened with love for Christ and fellowmen, theri they could not find 
too much time to attend to the work. The city has been divided 
into a hundred districts, and there are 75,000 families distributed up 
among a hundred churches. Workers were out in the city to-day; 
and next Friday, between two and three hundred drinking men, who 
had been gathered up this week by the workers, will be present, and 
many of them will hear the gospel spoken for the first time. Our 
opportunities and responsibilities are great. We can give a tract 
or a Bible, and thus forge a link in the chain which shall lead sin- 
ners to Christ. 

Rev. J. M. Manning, D. D., declared that the masses are reached, 
reached every day, and influenced either for good or evil. Business 
men going to their labors down town, and women going among their 
domestics, are reaching the people; and the question is, Are we 
hiding our light under a bushel, or not? We are living epistles, 
known and read of all men. As we go about among men what do 
our lives say to them? Do they say that the gospel of Christ has 
made new men and new women of us? Let us not forget that we 
are all the time reaching the masses, either for their salvation or for 
sending them further away from Christ and his salvation. 

Rev. L. B. Bates spoke of how political parties reached the masses, 
a few weeks before election. He described the electioneering ma- 



736 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

chinery, and argued if Christians wanted to reach the masses con- 
sistently they should do so. He then told how a certain minister, 
who had never been accused of preaching a great sermon, but who 
always had a church full, and for that reason was sent to take charge 
of a church in Newport, at first failed to attract the masses in that 
fashionable city; but there he finally filled his church by going down 
to the beach every noon, and inviting the rough fishermen to come. 
If we only adopt the plan of Jesus Christ, we shall reach the masses 
every time. He did not believe that the churches were not reaching 
the masses, as some speakers alleged; on the contrary he Maimed 
that the masses were reached, and would continue to be reached as 
long as the church of God remained true. 

Rev. W. O. Holman, of Charlestown, divided the great mass of peo- 
ple who have not been reached into two classes — the neglectful and 
the neglected. There are hundreds born in poverty and reared in 
ignorance, who feel that there is no person in the world who cares 
for them. There are others who, having early religious training, 
coming down from the hill-towns perhaps, have yielded to the temp- 
tations of city life, have drifted away from the Church. Then there 
are those who have been in better circumstances, who have grown 
indifferent to religion. All these are apparently neglected. The 
ministers do what they can; but they have constant calls upon their 
time and attention. Christian men and women do something; but 
they do not do enough. Mr. Holman told of Uncle John Vassar, 
the Missionary, who was at one time foreman in a brewery at Pough- 
keepsie. He went one day to his employer and said he was going 
to leave. The proprietor was astonished, and wanted to know his 
reason. He stated it as being that he could not see heaven through 
the two ends of a beer barrel. The work begun by this man on the 
Fifth avenue of Chicago was then graphically described. It began by 
his forcing himself into a fashionable residence, with his collection 
of books. He had been discouraged from attempting anything in 
that region: but his efforts resulted in the conversion of the lady of 
the house, and a revival followed. 

Rev. E. B. Webb said: Dear friends: I think we ought to be 
profoundly thankful for what has been accomplished in the direction 
that has been indicated. But I think, at the same time, we shall all 
agree that there are vast multitudes yet to be brought to the house 
of God and to be brought to Christ; and the questian may take 
another form perhaps, namely, in this way, Who are the persons who 
are to go to these people and bring them in? Does any portion of 
that responsibility rest upon me, as an individual? Does any por- 
tion rest upon any brother? How is this work to be done? Who 
is to do this work? Now I think, if we go right back to the Book 
we get a starting point. The Savior himself said, " As thou has sent 
me into the world, even so send I thee." Who does that mean? It 



D. L. MOODY'S CHURCH. 

Corner Chicago Avenue and La Salle Street, Chicago, III. 



This edifice, recently completed, had more helping hands in its 
erection, than perhaps any other similar building in the world. After 
the great fire, which laid 'in ashes Moody's Illinois Street Mission, he 
at once called upon the Sunday-school scholars of Christendom to 
contribute each "a brick" only, in this good cause. The response 
was hearty and general. In came the money, and up went the new 
church structure', which stands to-day a noble monument of child- 
love and liberality. It is 120x100 feet, with nine rooms below, and 
a large auditorium and galleries above seating 2,500 persons. The 
entire cost was about $100,000. The Society now has a membership 
of 400 and a Sunday-school of 1,000 scholars. 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION". 737 

means you and me, don't it? It means his disciples; and we take 
our start from the Master. Now what was the motive that influ- 
enced the Master in coming into the world; and what did the 
Master come into the world to do? I take it, it is true, as a general 
proposition, that every man or woman of ordinary ability can accom- 
plish in this world about what they undertake to accomplish. If it 
is your intention to become a lady of fashion in the city or in the 
town where you live, with ordinary ability you will succeed. If 
it is your intention to make money and become rich, and you 
live for that, with ordinary ability you will succeed; and this 
is true also, that if it is my intention, or your intention, to 
live for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to carry out that injunction, "As 
thou hast sent me, so I send thee," we can reach anybody that we 
go for and bring them to Christ. Is not that true? And if it true, 
then what are we living for? What am I living for in my sphere? 
What are you living for, brother? You are living to make money; 
you have half a million and want a million; you have got $100,000 
and want $200,000, I believe we should work man by man, each 
after an individual; and whenever the church of Christ, we al- 
together, come to possess that spirit and go forth as the Master has 
sent us, there will be no question to ask about this work. How did 
those men go? If you go anywhere where there is a living church 
to-day, you find that it is individual work. When we realize that 
we are here to redeem the world, this question will be taken out of 
the way. 

Rev. A. T. Gordon said that the best way to reach the masses is 
to try to reach individuals. When each man reaches his neighbor, 
he does effectual work. The speaker alluded to Uncle John Vassar's 
incisive method of working with individuals, telling of an interview 
he had with a gentleman, who afterwards boasted that he had shut 
him up. "Oh no," said a friend, "you can't shut him up." "Well, 
I sent him about his business." " Why he was about his business," 
replied the friend. That business should interest us all, was the sum 
of Mr. Gordon's concluding remarks. 

Rev. Dr. Taylor, of New York, said that a good many people think 
that if they are themselves filled and edified and comforted, that is 
all they need to expect from going to church. We should desire to 
be refreshed in the church for work outside of it. Some of the finest 
sermons the Savior preached were preached to individuals. The 
way Paul preached to the Roman soldier was by talking to him while 
ehained to him. They thought they had him secure; but he had 
them. Dr. Taylor told of having four oranges once, which he gave 
to his four children. He then asked which of them would give the 
baby a piece. As if by one consent, the three oldest turned to the 
fourth, and said, " Willie will do it." That, said the doctor, is hu- 
man nature. He then continued his remarks by telling a story told 
47 



738 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

of John Stirling by Carlyle — by the way, the only good thing I found 
in his book. There was a fire, and Stirling stood in the water up to 
his middle filling the buckets. On some one telling him that he 
would get his death if he stayed there, he simply remarked that 
" Somebody has to do it." That is the way we ought to feel; but 
we ought not to feel that the somebody is some person other than 
ourselves. The way to resume, as Horace Greeley says, is to resume; 
and the way to reach the masses is to reach the masses. 

Rev. E. Frank Howe, of Newtonville, spoke earnestly of the 
necessity of making the churches headquarters for reaching all men, 
and said that it is not only the miserably poor that are to be 
reached, but the miserably rich. 

Mr. Moody followed, and told of his early experience in Christian 
work in Chicago, when the congregations were discouragingly small. 
The way to success was found by putting the converts to work, try- 
ing to bring others into the fold. One man, who was converted 
through an interpreter, was unable to speak English, but wanted to 
work. He was given at last the task of distributing religious hand- 
bills, and did it very faithfully. Some people thanked him, and 
some cursed him. He didn't understand English, so it was all the 
same to him. He was made the means of converting many. 

As remedies for the non-attendance of people at church, Mr. 
Moody urged putting the converts to work, and dwelt also upon the 
good that may be done by congregational singing. The church has 
made a woeful mistake in not using the young converts. Mr. Moody 
said he had been able to do much good by going to billiard halls and 
saloons to sing, reaching the men at first by singing some patriotic 
song, and following it up by singing hymns. Soon the men take 
their hats off; the memory of their childhood brings tears to their 
eyes; soon they do not object to hearing the Scriptures read, or a 
prayer offered; and there is a prayer-meeting going before they 
know it. He had taken sixteen men out of one saloon, and nine of 
them went to the inquiry-room. Mr. Moody concluded by an 
earnest appeal to laymen to give themselves earnestly, and as much 
as possible, to Christian work. 

CHURCH MUSIC. 

Mr. Sankey alluded to the broadness of the question; and he 
would not, therefore, try to say what is the best singing for every 
church, for that would vary. He would simply consider how the 
service of music can be used best to the praise and glory of God. 
There are many churches, perhaps, in which different kinds of music 
are needed, and in some, a stated form may be necessary. It is im- 
possible to please everybody. If a certain kind of music is the only 
kind that will suit a church, it is best to let them go on in their own 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 739 

way. As rules of guidance, Mr. Sankey said he would encourage 
congregational singing; and he would have the choir composed of 
Christian men and women, and led by a Christian. He did not be- 
lieve in having people to praise God for others, when the singers 
hired have no sympathy with the church and its work. Then he 
would have the choir near the pulpit, and in full view of the congre- 
gation. It happens, too frequently, that paid choirs, or those not 
composed of Christians, when set away in the corner of a church, 
often act as no person should act in a church. He did not object to 
a quartette composed of Christians, but he did not believe in having 
people who sing in a theatre one night and in a church the next. 
This remark was applauded, and Mr. Sankey continued by saying 
that he preferred a small organ to a large one, because the usual 
manner of playing the organ tends to drown the voices of singers in 
the congregation. He would have the organ played softly, and 
would have more praying for the singing and less of criticism upon 
it. Ministers should pray repeatedly for their singers. 

Mr. Sankey said he wanted better preaching, which remark created 
considerable amusement. Good, earnest, warm singing he also re- 
garded as a necessity. He then asked any who had any questions to 
ask to put them, promising to answer them as well as he could. He 
wanted the questions to be practical, and put so they might be heard. 
The following are the questions and answers: 

Question — " Don't you think it would be a good thing to have the 
ministers good singers?" 

Mr. Sankey — "Well, friend, it would be a good thing; but we 
haven't the arrangement of that." (Laughter.) 

Question — " What are you going to do when you have no Christian 
men that can sing?" 

Mr. Sankey — " I would take Christian women. (Laughter.) And 
then I would have an old-fashioned evangelical service there, and 
convert some male singers." 

Question — "How can we have the singers speak plain?" 

Mr. Sankey — " By speaking to them gently, and asking them to do 
so. Don't laugh at them, or criticise or abuse them, but speak to 
them properly; and they will be glad to correct their faults." 

Question — "What do you think of organ preludes and inter- 
ludes?" 

Mr. Sankey — "Instead of a long prelude, I would have the singing 
of Gospel hymns before the minister comes in." 

Question — " What do you think of music that is good music, but 
which the people do not understand?" 

Mr. Sankey — "If it is good music, or operatic, I would not con- 
demn it; but I think it should be left to the opera-house and some- 
thing else put in its place that the people can appreciate. Operatic 



740 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

music has its place; but I don't think the church is the place for it." 
(Applause.) 

Question — " Do you think that the Sabbath school can be used 
for church sino-ing:?" 

Mr. Sankey — "Yes; that is a good idea. I would graduate the 
children from the Sabbath school choir to the church choir." 

Question — " Don't you think that the instruction in music in the 
public schools is good for the church ? " 

Mr. Sankey — "Yes; it is a grand thing for the Church." 

Question — " If you get all your singers into one corner, what are 
the rest of the church going to do?" 

Mr. Sankey — " Sing ! " (Laughter and applause.) 

Franklin W. Smith spoke of a remark he once heard from a Ger- 
man musician visiting this country. This gentleman thought that 
much spiritual life is lost in America because of the lack of associ- 
ated singing. After speaking very eloquently of the service of 
praise as being divinely instituted, Mr. Smith " brought down the 
house " by his interpretation of a performance he once heard from a 
church quartette. The soprano, a lady with a beautiful voice, sang 
first, and the music, as it came to Mr. Smith, seemed to say, " Hear 
me sing ! Hear me sing ! " Then the basso, in grand full tones, be- 
gan, and what his music meant was, "Now hear me." 

WHAT CAN BE DONE FOB YOUNG MEN? 

Rev. Mr. Northrup, of Hartford, Conn., said: "It must be re- 
membered, at the outset that young men are not, as a class, harder 
to reach than any other class. A well-known college profes- 
sor asserts that, with proper instrumentalities employed, none 
respond so readily to Christian effort as young men. In Con- 
necticut, recently, several religious movements have begun with 
young men. This class of society must be sought by those 
belonging to it." In support of his declaration, that young 
men should seek young men, Mr. Northrup related several 
instances of conversions effected by such among those o'f their 
own age. Another agency to be employed is the work of 
Christian employers. When men make more of a business of relig- 
ion, there will be more religion in business. Another means of 
reaching young men is, to make pleasant ways for them to pass 
their leisure time. Set up counter attractions to the billiard hall 
and the saloon. In all ways, approach the young men in a frank and 
manly way. 

Russell Sturgis, Jr., devoted his remarks to explaining the ob- 
jects and methods of the Young Men's Christian Association, for 
which he asked sympathy and the support of Christian prayers. 

Rev. J. A. H. Behrends, D. D., of Providence, R. I., said he wished 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 741 

to pass from a consideration of methods to a consideration of that 
which underlies all methods. Rather than multiply machinery, we 
must intensify the spirit which is in those engaged in Christian work. 
Dr. Behrends concluded his brief and eloquent remarks by urging 
Christian workers to reach the young by being young in spirit. 

Rev. Reuben Thomas, of Brookline, spoke of the time in every 
young man's life when he is in a skeptical frame of mind. He had 
had such a time in his own life ; and, looking over his experience, he 
felt that the ministers must know the young men's doubts, and sym- 
pathize with them. Else they will not listen. He indorsed the idea 
expressed by Dr. Behrends, that those who wished to reach the 
young must themselves be young in spirit. Religion makes a man 
young. A humorous allusion to Mr. Moody's continued brightness 
was pleasantly received; and then Mr. Thomas said that a whole 
batch of young men had come into his church on the last communion 
Sunday. He thought that they were very bright and fresh looking 
— a Stephen, every one of them. Mr. Thomas concluded by exhort- 
ing all to youthfulness of spirit in dealing with the young. 

"HOW CAN THE CHURCHES OP NEW ENGLAND BE REVIVED?" 

Rev. R. R. Meredith said: the question is, How can the churches of 
New England be revived? It is not so much a question as to how 
sinners are to be revived; but how the churches are to be awakened. 
The framer of the question probably thought that, the churches be- 
ing revived, the salvation of sinners would follow as a matter of 
course. The churches of New England are wonderfully alive; but 
the one thing that they need to-day is an earnest, deep revival of 
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all united in this 
belief, and equally so in the desire for the coming of that revival. 
In answer to the question, the speaker said that there is only one 
way to revive a church, and that is to revive its individual members. 
When you get all the members of a church awakened, then your 
church is revived; for if every man cleans the snow from his own 
sidewalk, the whole sidewalk is clean. In order to get a revival, we 
must not try to get it up, but to bring it down — bring it down from 
God. We must, therefore, pray for it, wrestling with the angel of 
the Lord till we get the blessing. The prayer must be earnest; it 
must be specific in regard to this matter. All we get from God, we 
get by definite prayer. Our prayer must also be contrite; we must 
humble ourselves before God, confessing our shortcomings. It must 
also be humble, our wills being deferred to the will of God. God 
sends rain in his own way; and if we want a revival, we must take 
it just as God sends it. Then, in all and through all, our prayer 
must be believing prayer. 

A revival of true religion is not only of Divine origin; but it is 



742 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

of Divine origin through human co-operation. It is wonderful that 
God should make us co-workers with him in saving souls; but the 
tact lays upon us a great responsibility. "Go work in my vineyard," 
is the command of the Lord to every convert. The necessary things 
are a sense of personal responsibility, an earnest spirit of consecra- 
tion, an incessant activity in the work. How are we to get these 
things? The only way in which a revival of religion in the churches 
is to be obtained is, by those present giving their hearts entirely to 
God. The speaker concluded by urging the delegates not to leave 
Boston until they are on fire for God. Then they will take away a 
spark which will create a revival in the churches of New England. 
Rev. W. B. Wright said that there are three laws which must be 
conformed to before the churches can be revived. Each of these 
was presented in connection with a glance at the history of the apos- 
tles after the Savior's death. These laws, as Mr. Wright presented 
them briefly, toward the close of his remarks, are confession of sin, 
earnest prayer to God, and thorough activity in work. 

Rev. G. F. Pentecost thought that a great responsibility rests 
upon the ministers. The pastorate in New England and elsewhere 
has become too much a commercial engagement; and ministers have 
come to have more regard for their churches than for their Master, 
The authority given to the minister to preach is derived directly 
from the Lord Jesus Christ; and if that fact is forgotten, the ministry 
will become a failure. Men's sins must be rebuked; but if the minis- 
ter stops to question whether his pastorate will be made insecure by 
plain preaching, he loses sight of his mission. It is not necessary 
that the minister should continually scourge his people; but he should 
preach always as in the sight of the Master. Paul's devotion to his 
work was eloquently spoken of. There must be a revival in preach- 
ing; ministers preaching less as theological professors, and more as 
bearers of a message from God. The speaker urged that ministers be 
more familiar with the Bible, indulging more in practical Scripture 
exposition than in merely forensic effort. 

Rev. Mr. Newell, of Newburyport, said that we know that Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners; and the mission of Christians is 
to save souls. If we keep that fact in mind, we will be alive. There 
are souls all around us perishing under the shadow of the churches. 
When these churches are awake to the need of these souls, there 
will be a revival. 

MR. MOODY AND THE QUESTION DRAWER. 

Mr. Moody then announced the first question which had been sent 
to him as relating to the matter of praying for the Spirit: Does 
not the continued seeking after the Holy Spirit blunt the sense of 
what we have? If a man is full, he can hold no more. Praying for 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 743 

power differs from praying- for the indwelling of the Spirit. There 
is little danger that Christians will become so full of the Spirit that 
they need no power. 

Q. Why don't you teach baptism ? Ans. That is none of your 
business. Some men would have this work broken up in six weeks 
or six days, if they had their way. (Applause.) Suppose I should 
teach baptism by sprinkling, away would go Mr. Pentecost. (Mr. 
Pentecost: "No, I wouldn't.") If I taught baptism by immersion, 
away would go Dr. Webb. Let us see what we can meet on. Let 
ministers indoctrinate these converts as they please. Evangelists 
are just to proclaim the gospel; they just want to keep out those 
controverted questions. When June comes it will be four years 
that Mr. Sankey and I have been together in meetings; and we have 
yet to hear the first word of discord. I can have my views of bap- 
tism, and if I had a church I could teach the people what I believe; 
but in these meetings, it would be unfair to do it. Q. How can 
the churches of New England be revived? A. If I were in a town 
of four or five churches, I would see the ministers and see if they 
would agree. If two of them agreed, I would say. "Why can't 
we work together?" Then we would meet and pray. Suppose there 
were no more than twelve persons come together for prayer, if they 
hold on faithfully there will be a revival. If you can get three 
churches to join, all the better. Our work is always in proportion 
to the number of churches interested in the movement. If the 
whole church is not aroused, it is no sign that we should not be 
quickened and aroused personally. If there is one man aroused, 
there will be anxious souls around that man. We have to act in 
this world as if there were not another man or woman in it. If we 
are cold ourselves, we are apt to think every one else is cold. What 
we want is to get our own hearts on fire, and there will be a revival. 
I hope every delegate will go back with his heart burdened for the 
town or village in which he lives. There may be obstacles; but the 
Spirit of God can bring unity where there is faith. Let all our ex- 
pectations be from God, and then we will not be disappointed. 
May God revive every church in New England. Let that be our 
prayer. 

Q. Would you hurry people into the church as soon as they are 
converted ? A. No, I wouldn't. I used to think that, as soon as a 
man is converted, he should join the church; but I have grown more 
conservative. Mr. Moody here told of his experience when, a num- 
ber of years ago, he was anxious to join Mount Vernon Church. The 
story is well known. He thought that people should know what 
they are about. Some people get into the church very easy, and it's 
hard to get them out; sometimes they break it up. 

Q. What is the best way to conduct evangelistic meetings? A. 
I would have them short, not more than an hour in length, with 



744 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

plenty of singing. Then I'd have a second meeting for prayer and 
an inquiry meeting. 

Q. Isn't it better to get all the inquirers together? A. I like 
to get the inquirers off alone, and talk with them from the Word 
of God, pray with them, try to remove their doubts and calm their 
fears. Then send them home, to think quietly over the matter in 
their minds. The duty of Christians to work among those around 
them at religious meetings was urged, and Mr. Moody said that 
Christians should always have their Bibles with them, and be ready 
to point sinners to the Savior. 

Q. What would you do with infidels in the inquiry-room? A. 
I like to have them come, and would pray with them. There is no 
good in arguing with them. 

Q. What would you do with inquirers who are not anxious. A. 
If they are in the inquiry -room that is a sign that they are anx- 
ious. 

Q. Would you tell them that they are saved? A. No. That 
I leave to God. 

Q. Would you give them books or tracts? A. I would give 
them the Scriptures. 

Q. Would you tell them to go home and pray? A. No; they 
might die on the way home. I would hold them to the little word, 
« Now." 

Q. Would you have an inquiry meeting after every meeting ? 
A. Well, if I preached the Gospel, I think I would pull on the net 
and see if I had got anything. 

Q. Would you encourage little children to come to the church? 
A. Certainly. The smaller the better ; so early that they cannot 
tell when they began. 

Q. How can we get more life into our prayer meetings? A. 
Get more into yourselves first. It is a good thing to get prayer 
meetings out of the ruts, sometimes. We must have variety — new 
hymns, etc., once in a while. Get people close together. I have 
seen many a meeting lost by the people being scattered. Let the 
place of meeting be well ventilated, and warmed and cheerful. Let 
the prayers be short. 

Q. Would you have new speakers every night in evangelistic 
meetings? A. I would not; it wouldn't succeed. We tried it in 
Chicago; and there was only one man converted. I wondered how 
it was that man was converted. Let each man preach two or three 
weeks. 

Q. How would you get a church to work ? A. Go to work 
yourself. A working Christian is a rejoicing one. Mr. Moody told 
of a man with a broken leg, who received a bunch of grapes. He 
told his wife he couldn't eat them, but would send them to a sick 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 745 

neighbor. The sick neighbor sent them to another, and he oaok to 
the first; and so they were all blessed. 

Q. Would you have children sign the pledge or the Covenant? 
A. No. I thought I would once, but have got over that. The chil- 
dren would be apt to lean on the Covenant, and make no effort for 
themselves. 

Q. Do you think it best to advertise religious services ? A. 
Certainly. We should learn from the world. Advertising is wise in 
business, and does more good than harm to religion. 

Mr. Moody said that a great many questions had been received in 
regard to the matter of fairs, theatricals and so forth in the church. 
Q. Can the young people be drawn thereby? A. You can draw 
them; but you can't draw them to the cross. He had heard of wives 
going to the theatre, in order to have the husband go to church on 
Sunday. That is not a good policy. It is a letting down of the 
standard. He thought that ministers make a mistake in preaching 
tirades against worldly amusements. It is much better to preach 
the people so full of the Holy Spirit that they will not want any- 
thing else. Raising money by fairs to pay off a church debt is a mis- 
erable way of doing things. 

Q. Is there any danger of preaching too much to the careless, 
and too little to the unconverted ? A. I would go for the careless 
every time, and then I would attend to the unconverted. There is 
not much encouragement in going over a cold church to reach the 
world. 

Q. How can we get more life in our prayer meetings ? A. Get 
more into yourself, get the people close together, and have variety; 
make the meeting a sociable affair. Have good ventilation, and all 
the exercises brief. 

Q. How would you cure a chronic fault-finding church member? 
A. Get him into the prayer meeting, and pray with him till that 
devil is cast out. Fault-finding is a nuisance in the church. A man 
full of the Spirit is not full of fault- fin ding. 

Q. May not a minister be too personal in his preaching ? A. 
Well, I don't know. Personal preaching is very effective. It is 
well to wake a man up, if he is asleep. Mr. Moody saw a man 
asleep while Dr. Taylor was preaching on Wednesday night; he 
asked Dr. Gordon to wake him up. He thought it a religious dutv 
to wake people up. (Laughter.) A hunch from the elbow may 
save a soul. Mr. Moody said he went to church to sleep once him- 
self; but he was roused. There cannot be too much personal preach- 
ing. 

Q. Would you encourage young converts to become communi- 
cants? A. If they feel sure they are converted, I would. 

Q. How can gambling in our churches be cured? A. Have no 
festivals. There is no gambling at prayer meetings. 



746 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

Q. Would you encourage young converts to speak in meeting ? 
A. Yes. Let them use their talents. 

Q. Is there danger of hardening the hearts of the unconverted 
by speaking to them ? A. We must use tact; but still we must be 
faithful in preaching the Word. 

Rev. J. B. Dunn said: In many instances, the prayer meeting is a 
very insipid affair. It is the especial property of a few hum-drum 
patriarchs, who meet once a week to go all around the universe in 
prayer. Any others who go, attend probably with the idea of doing 
a kind of penance; or under the impression that, in going, they jus- 
tify that Scripture about going to a house of mourning. He pro- 
posed to tell how a prayer meeting which, a few years ago, drew only 
sixteen or seventeen persons, now draws between six and seven hun- 
dred. The secret is, a true perception, on the part of pastor and 
people, of the true relation of the prayer meeting to the church. It 
is the thermometer of the church's life. The prayer meeting is the 
heart of the church; and if the church is to live, the prayer meeting 
must be sustained. The next thing essential is that there must be 
faith in prayer. Every member of the church should attend the 
prayer meeting, once in a week. There must be preparation for the 
meeting. It has often cost him more thought and more anxiety to 
prepare for the prayer meeting than to prepare his sermon. Then 
the pastor must get helpers around him, remembering that there are 
diversities of gifts. Inspire these helpers with the idea that, if there 
is but one place they can fill for Christ, that place should be the 
prayer meeting. Kindly impress upon their minds the beauty and 
utility of brief prayers and addresses. Good singing is a valuable 
auxiliary in the prayer meeting, and the hymns should be cheerful 
ones. The Bible should be taken into the meeting, and spoken on 
after due study. Then all this machinery must all have life in it. 
There must be hot hearts in the church. Mr. Dunn closed his pithy 
remarks by telling that, when he was a boy, everybody attending 
church where he lived carried a burning coal for the fire. So he said 
each one should take to the prayer meeting a coal from off the 
altar. 

" Camp Meeting John Allen " said that for fifteen years he had 
been greatly interested in the subject of prayer meetings. He had 
seen some meetings where there was a lack of fire, and some where 
there was too much fire. For a man to make a long prayer, which 
makes people not know when he's through, what he was talking 
about, or whether he was really acquainted with the one to whom he 
was talking. When we are acquainted with Jesus, the fact bubbles 
out. 

Rev. L. B. Bates remarked that all praying people, the old and 
the young, should take part in the prayer meeting, and that there 
should be in all the exercises a burning desire to win souls to God. 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 747 

Mr. Moody said there might be present some ministers whose 
prayer meetings have got into ruts. He invited such to put ques- 
tions, which he or some other person would try to answer. One 
gentleman suggested as a difficulty " the awful pauses." Mr. Moody 
thought that the minister should offer prayer; the reading of a verse 
or so of Scripture is useful. In reply to a question as to whether 
children should be allowed to speak in meeting, Mr. Moody replied 
that there should be care in the matter. One danger is that, when a 
child speaks well, he is apt to be praised too much. He was in favor 
of meetings for children, conducted by some grown person. In re- 
ply to an inquiry as to how women can be induced to talk in meet- 
ing, he said, in effect, that the meeting must be made as informal as 
possible. 

Other questions brought out the following thoughts: Singing, or 
other such means, ought not to be relied on to get the people up to 
a spirit fit for a prayer meeting. Christians should always be in a 
praying mood. Mr. Moody thought it well to have the subjects for 
prayer meetings announced. He would encourage women, and 
every one, to pray and speak in social prayer meetings. In reply to 
a question as to how long prayers could be broken up, Mr. Moody 
said that several times since he had been in Boston, when people 
had been praying too long, he had just touched their heel. It never 
hurt the feelings of the parties; or, if it did, he never heard of it. A 
quiet hint is generally sufficient to make a man consider the duty of 
brevity. Good exhortations, he thought, are much better than pray- 
erless prayer. 

One of Mr. Moody's best answers was to the question, " Is it right 
to give exhortations in the form of prayer?" He thought it an awful 
thing to have to open his eyes in order to see whether the man of- 
fering prayer is talking to God or to the people around him. In 
reply to a query as to whether he would close a meeting on the 
hour if it was very interesting, he said he would. If a man in whom 
people had no confidence took part in a prayer meeting, he would 
ask him never to do so any more. We should be frank and honest 
with such men. He remembered a man in Boston who, a number 
of years ago, always took part in prayer meetings. He was not 
right in his life; and finally, an old gentleman told him that if he 
ever spoke again he would walk up to him and look him in the 
eye. The old gentleman kept his word, and the man's remarks were 
shortened very materially. 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

HELD AT THE HIPPODROME IN NEW YORK, MARCH 29 and 30, 1876' 

At the opening of the convention at 10 o'clock, the great hall of 
the Hippodrome was full, a large audience being present in addition 
to the 3,350 pastoral and lay delegates, representing 19 states and 
340 towns. The great majority of the delegates were laymen. 

Mr. Moody, in announcing the subjects of the day, spoke as fol- 
lows: 

The two subjects that we have for this forenoon are as follows: 
Evangelistic Services — How to Conduct them; and How to Conduct 
Prayer- Meetings. I have not asked any one to speak on these 
questions. I thought we would just come together and spend an 
hour on each question. At Philadelphia, we found that it was prof- 
itable just to let any one in the audience ask any question on the 
subject before us, and we would try and answer it if we could; and 
in that way, I think, we will be enabled to help those that have 
difficulty. Let me say a few words about this question. 

EVANGELISTIC SERVICES. 

A person said to me: "What do you mean by Evangelistic 
services? Is not all service evangelistic? What do you mean 
by preaching the gospel? Are not all services in churches 
and all meetings preaching the gospel?" No. There is a good 
deal of difference. There are three services — at least there 
ought to be — in every church; and every one ought to keep 
them in their mind. There is worshiping Cod. That is not 
preaching the gospel at all. We come to the house of God to wor- 
ship at times, when we meet around the Lord's table; that is wor- 
ship, or ought to be. Then there is teaching — building up God's 
people. That is not preaching the gospel. Then there is proclaiming 
the good news of the gospel to the world, to the unsaved. Now, the 
question we have before us is: How can these services be conducted 
to make them profitable? Well, I should say you have to conduct 
them to interest the people. If they go to sleep, they certainly 
want to be roused up; and if one method don't wake them up, try 
another. But I think we ought to use our common sense, if you 
will allow me the word. We talk a good deal about it; but I think 
it is about the least sense we have, especially in the Lord's work. If 
748 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 749 

one method don't succeed, let us try another. This preaching to 
empty seats don't pay. If people won't come to hear us, let us go 
where they are. We want to preach. Go into some neighborhood 
and get some person to invite you into their house, and get them 
into the kitchen, and preach there. But make it a point to interest 
the people; and as soon as they get interested, they will follow you 
and fill the churches. 

Now, I have come to this conclusion, that if we are going to have 
successful gospel meetings, we have got to have a little more life in 
them. Life is found in singing new hymns, for instance. I know 
some churches that have been singing about a dozen hymns for the 
last twenty years, such hymns as " Rock of Ages," "There is a foun- 
tain filled with blood," etc. These hj^mns are always good, but we 
want a variety. We want new hymns as well as the old ones. I 
find it wakes up a congregation very much to bring in, now and 
then, a new hymn. And if you cannot wake them up with preach- 
ing, let us sing it into them. I believe the time is coming when we 
will make a good deal more of just singing the gospel. Then when 
a man is converted, let us have him in these meetings giving his 
testimony. Some people are afraid of that. I believe the secret of 
John Wesley's success was, that he set every man to work, as soon 
as he was converted. Of course, you have to guard that point. 
Some say they become spiritually proud; no doubt of that. But 
if they don't go to work they become spiritually lazy; and I don't 
know what's the difference. 

Now, the first impulse of the young convert is to go and publish 
what Christ has done for him. Sometimes a young convert will 
wake up a whole community and a whole town, just merely telling 
what the Lord has done for him; and it is good to bring in these 
witnesses and let them speak. Then, another thing. In a good 
many towns where we have union meetings, we change ministers 
every night; and a good many special religious meetings have been 
organized, and proved perfect failures. I am getting letters all the 
time telling about special meetings, how the people turned out well, 
but there were no results; and on inquiry I found they had a Meth- 
odist minister one night, a Baptist minister another, an Episcopal min- 
ister another, a Congregational minister another, in order to keep all 
denominations in, and the result was they preached everybody out of 
doors. You could see, right on the face of it, that that would be the 
result. One man gets the people all interested; and just at the 
point where he needs to continue his own ministrations, another 
steps in and he goes out. And so there is no getting hold of the 
people. Now, I believe we have got to have one man. 

I remember in Chicago, the last winter I was there, we had 
preaching every afternoon. We went out with invitations into 
saloons, billiard halls, etc., and we got a large audience there 



750 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

every afternoon; and we had a new minister every day. We 
wanted to bring in all denominations, to keep harmony; and I 
believe there was one solitary conversion, after preaching thirty 
days. If we had only stuck to one minister, I believe we would 
have done a great work then and there; and if we are going to have 
successful evangelistic services, we cannot be changing speakers 
every night. And that is why it is best to get a man out of town, 
and all will unite on that one man. I wish we could get rid of this 
jealousy. If we could unite on one man, and support him with our 
prayers and our money, if it need be, and just work with him, there 
would be results. I never knew it to fail yet. It is just this party 
feeling that comes in and prevents the good results we expect. We 
are afraid this denomination won't like it, and that denomination 
won't be properly represented. 

Then these meetings ought to be made short. I find a great many 
are killed because they are too long. The minister speaks five min- 
utes, and a minister's five minutes is always ten, and his ten min- 
utes is always twenty (laughter) ; and the result is, you preach 
everybody into the spirit and out of it, before the meeting is over. 
When the people leave they are glad to go home, and ought to go 
home. Now, you send the people away hungry, and they will 
come back again. There was a man in London who preached in the 
open air until everybody left him, and somebody said, " Why did 
you preach so long?" " Oh," said he, "I thought it would be a 
pity to stop while there was anybody listening." (Laughter.) It is 
a good deal better to cut right off, then people will come back again 
to hear. But I only just wanted to open this question, and give a 
few hints of what my idea is. Now, if any of you have a few ques- 
tions you would like to ask, in any part of the hall, on this one sub- 
ject, we would like to answer them; and if we cannot, there may be 
some one else here who can. 

Q. Would you start a meeting when there is no special interest in 
the churches? 

Mr. Moody — Certainly I would. A good many are folding their 
arms and saying, " Wait until the good time comes to favor Zion." 
The point is, to make the good time come anyway. Go to work. 
They have got no calendar in heaven. God can work one month as 
well as another; and he is always ready, when we are ready. ^ 

Q. Would you increase the number of meetings as the interest 
increases? 

Mr. Moody — It depends upon how many meetings I have had. If 
I had as many as I could attend, I would not increase them; but I 
would if I could. 

Q. Suppose the minister is interested and there is no special feel- 
ing among the people, would you call in outside help? Would you 
commence the effort by calling in at once outside help? 



CHEISTIAN CONVENTION. 751 

Mr. Moody — That is a very important question. If I were a min- 
ister in a community or a church, and could not get more than one 
or two to sympathize with me, I would just get them around to my 
study, and we would pray and go forth in the name of the Lord, and 
say, "We are agoing to have a meeting; " and there will be an in- 
terest break out. Three men can move any town. If you are going 
to wait until the whole church gets aroused, yon will have to wait a 
long time. Get as many as you can, and God will stand by you. 

Q. Suppose the congregation is alive and the minister is dead? 

Mr. Moody — Then let the congregation go on without the min- 
ister. [Laughter.] 

Q. Suppose the minister won't permit them? 

Mr. Moody — He can't prevent it. A man that wants to work for 
God can do so, and nobody can stop him. 

Q. Suppose there is a difficulty in the church which cannot be 
removed? 

Mr. Moody — I don't know of any difficulties that God cannot 
remove. The trouble is we are trying to remove these difficulties 
ourselves, instead of going to God in prayer. 

Q. Why was it the Lord Jesus could not do anvthing at Naza- 
reth? 

Mr. Moody — On account of their unbelief; but that was the world, 
not the church. [Laughter.] 

Q. Is it best to put a test question in a church, asking those that 
are anxious for their souls to rise, or rather to go to another room? 

Mr. Moody — I think so. If any man is going to be saved, he is 
going to take up his cross; and if it is a cross, I would like to ask 
him to do it. What you want is to get them to do something they 
don't want to do, and it is a great cross generally for people to rise 
for prayer; but in the very act of doing it, they are very often 
blessed. It is letting their friends know that they are interested, 
and are on the Lord's side. I have found, in the last three years, 
that it has been a great help to us. In fact, I don't think I should 
attempt to have meetings withont the inquiry-room. People are 
sometimes impressed under the sermon; but what you want is, to 
deal with them personally. Here and there one is converted under 
the sermon; but for every one converted under the sermon, hun- 
dreds are converted in the inquiry-room. 

Q. Suppose the pastor and a small portion of his congregation 
desire to have a meeting, and the trustees refuse to open the 
doors? 

Mr. Moody — Well, I should pray for the trustees. In the first 
place, the church has made a mistake in electing unconverted 
men as trustees. We want Christian men to hold office in the church. 
Men sometimes are put in as trustees that haven't got any character 
at all, and they regulate your choir, and very often your minister; and 



752 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

if a minister touches their consciences and preaches right at them, 
they get annoyed and send him away. 

Q. In a community where there is an interesting revival, very 
many families have not been reached — do not attend church any- 
where; what would you have laymen try to do? 

Mr. Moody — I would have the whole town districted off, and 
every family visited. I think that could be done. 

Q. Do you advocate "anxious seats?" 

Mr. Moody — I would rather call it seats of decision; but in union 
meetings, you know, we have to lay aside a good many of the dif- 
ferent denominational peculiarities. The " anxious seat " is known 
to the Methodists; but if we should call it that the Presbyterians 
would be afraid, and the Episcopalians would be so shocked that 
they would leave, and I find, in the union meetings, it is best to ask 
them to go right into the other room, and talk to them there. 

Q. What would you say to a person who replies, " I can be a 
Christian without rising for prayer?" 

Mr. Moody — I should say most certainly he could; but as a gen- 
eral thing, he won't. If a man makes up his mind that he won't do 
a thing, the Lord generally makes him do it before he gets into the 
kingdom. 

Q. What method would you recommend to get people on their 
feet to testify for Christ? 

Mr. Moody — In the first place, I would bury all stiffness. If a 
meeting has a formal manner, it throws a stiffness over it, so that it 
would take almost an earthquake to get a man up; but if it is free 
and social, just as you would go into a man's house and talk with him, 
you will find people will appreciate it and get up. 

Q. When one or more leading members of the church have so 
borne themselves in the community as that the church has been 
scandalized, would you recommend a course of discipline before 
commencing special meetings? 

Mr. Moody — I should say certainly. I should go to the ISth chap- 
ter of Matthew and see what we are taught to do there; and if these 
men would not repent, I would turn them out of the church and 
then commence to work. I would rather have ten members right 
with God, than to have a great church of five hundred members and 
the world laughing at them. 

Q. If the world has got in and is stronger than the church, 
what? 

Mr. Moody — Then I would organize another church. [Laughter.] 
The mistake in all this is, in taking unconverted people into the 
church. We have got to be more careful. 

Q. Suppose there are excitements in the church that seem to 
draw the attention of the church away from higher things, politics, 
for instance? 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 753 

Mr. Moody — I don't know much about politics. The political 
question might interest the world, and you could go right on without 
being interrupted; but the thing I dread more than I do politics is 
these miserable church fairs. [Laughter.] That is the thing that 
bothers me most. More meetings have been broken up, and the in- 
terest dissipated, by these bazaars and church festivals than by your 
political meetings. 

Q. How far is it wise to encourage young converts to labor with 
inquirers in the inquiry-meetings? 

Mr. Moody — I always encourage them. I believe a man who has 
been a great drunkard, for instance, and been reclaimed, is just the 
man to go to work among his class. 

Q. How would you use the boys and girls? 

Mr. Moody — You have to use a good deal of discretion about chil- 
dren. I will admit there is great danger in having children take an 
active part, for some people are sure to say, " Don't that boy speak 
well?" and up comes spiritual pride, and you have ruined that boy. 

Q. Is a man justified in neglecting service at his own church, in 
order to talk to those who will not attend church? 

Mr. Moody — My experience has been that a man that has got the 
spirit to go out after other men will bring a good many into the 
church. He don't neglect it; he is worth about a dozen men who 
go and take good cushioned seats, Sunday after Sunday, and don't 
speak to any one. 

Q. When a man feels that he must preach the gospel and the 
church doesn't want to hear it, must he go out? 

Mr. Moody — A great many have got the idea that they can preach 
the gospel, when they cannot; and some have got the idea that they 
cannot preach the gospel, and they can to a certain class; and then 
they are just the ones to speak in that church. Now, I have tried 
that. When I was first converted, I thought I must talk to them 
about Christ, but I saw they did not like it; and finally they came 
and told me I could serve the Lord better by keeping still. Then 
I went out into the street, and God blessed me; and I got to preach- 
ing before I knew it. If the people don't want you, don't force 
yourself upon them. Go out and preach to the ragged and the des- 
titute. 

Q. Would you encourage women preaching in the pulpit? 

Mr. Moody — I should say it is a complicated point, and we will 
leave it. I don't care about my wife going around and preaching. 
[Laughter.] 

HOW TO CONDUCT PRAYER-MEETINGS. 

"I have noticed," said Mr. Moody, "in traveling up and down 
the country, and after mingling with a great many ministers, that it 
is not the man that can preach the best that is the most successful; 
48 



754 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

but the man who knows how to get his people together to pray. 
He has more freedom. It is so much easier to preach to an audience 
that is full of sympathy with you than to those that are criticising all 
the time; it chills your heart through and through. Now if we could 
only have our prayer-meetings what they ought to be, and people go 
not out of any sense of duty, but because they delight to go, it would 
be a great help to a minister on Sunday. Now I find it a great help 
in prayer-meetings to get the people right up close together, and 
then get myself right down among them. I believe many a meeting 
is lost by the people being scattered. 

Another important thing is to see that the ventilation is all right. 
Sometimes I have been in rooms where I think the air must have 
been in there five or six years. You cannot always trust the janitors 
to take care of it. The people get sleepy, and you think it is your 
fault. Very often such a thing is the fault of bad ventilation. See 
that you get fresh air; not too hot, and not too cold, but pure. 
Then it is a good thing to have a subject. Let all the people know 
a week beforehand what the subject is going to be. You take the 
subject of Faith, say, and ask a brother or two privately to say a lit- 
tle on that subject. If they say, "I cannot get my thoughts to- 
gether;" or, "I am so frightened when I get up that I tremble all 
over," then tell them just to get up and read a verse. It won't be 
long before they will add a few words to that verse; and after a 
while they will want to talk too much, and the meetings thus become 
very profitable to those men. What we want is variety. Instead 
of having Deacon Jones and Deacon Smith and Deacon Brown do 
all the praying and all the talking, have somebody else say some- 
thing in this wa}r, and thus create an interest. 

I would not make the minister always take the lead; for I have 
noticed when the minister takes the lead, if he ever goes off there is 
a collapse. Now, it seems to me a minister should get different ones 
into the chair; and when he goes off, the meetings won't miss him, 
and there will be no falling off. Not only that, but he is training 
his members to work. They will go out around the town and in 
school-houses, and preach the gospel; and we multiply preachers 
and workers in that way, if they are only just taught to take part. 
Now, I believe there are a great many in our church prayer-meet- 
ings that could be brought out and made to be a great help, if the 
ministers would only pay attention to it. How many lawyers, physi- 
cians, public speakers, we have who do nothing to actively help along 
the work; and I believe that difficulty could be removed, if the min- 
ister would take a little pains. Let the father whose son has been 
converted get up and give thanks. Have once in a while a thanks- 
giving meeting. It wakes up a church wonderfully, once in a while 
to let the young converts relate their experiences. Then you say: 
What are you going to do with these men that talk so long? I 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION* 755 

would talk to them privately, and tell them they must try to be 
shorter. And it is a good thing* sometimes for ministers themselves 
not to be too long. Sometimes they read a good deal of Scripture, 
and talk until perhaps only fifteen minutes are left; and then they 
complain because Deacon Smith, or Jones, or some one else talks too 
long. Just let the minister strike the key-note of the meeting; and 
if he can't do that in ten minutes he can't at all. Very often a min- 
ister takes up a chapter and exhausts it, and says everything he can 
think of in the chapter; and then can you wonder a layman cannot 
say more, who has had no study of the subject? Give out the sub- 
ject a week ahead; let the minister take five or ten minutes in open- 
ing; and then let the different ones take part. That would be a 
greater variety. When a man takes part, he gets greatly interested 
himself. It was pretty true what the old deacon said, that when he 
took part they were very intesting; and when he didn't, they 
seemed very dull. [Lauahter.] 

Q. Suppose one, two or three brethren come to the prayer-meet- 
ing and there are thirty sisters how are you going to get along? 

Mr. Moody — I should call it a woman's meeting, arid go on and 
have the sisters take part. [Laughter.] 

Q. What should be the main purpose of a prayer-meeting — the 
conversion of sinners, devotion, or the edification of saints? 

Mr. Moody — I should say that the prayer-meeting ought to be for 
the edification of saints and devotion. 

Q. If some are very happy and begin to shout and clap their hands, 
would you stop them ? 

Mr. Moody — That is a controverted point, and I will omit that 
[Laughter.] I have an idea that a gospel meeting is one thing, and 
a prayer-meeting another. There also ought to be meetings where 
we proclaim the gospel to the unsaved. 

Q. Would you have an inquiry meeting after every preaching? 

Mr. Moody — My experience has led me to think the best time to 
strike is when the iron is hot. If I was preaching, and tried to 
rouse men to flee from the wrath to come, I would have an inquiry 
meeting afterward. 

Q. Is it profitable to have preaching services every Sunday night 
for the unconverted? 

Mr. Moody — Yes, and every night, too, sometimes; but my idea of 
church worship is about like this: We have breaking of the bread or 
communion; then there is teaching; and then in the evening they 
proclaim the gospel; and in -the morning they come knowing it is 
for the edification of the saints, building up God's people. 

Q. You say you would allow church members to conduct prayer- 
meetings. You know the character of the New England congrega- 
tional prayer-meeting, and that there is danger that these people be- 



756 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 



gin to take the leadership out of the hands of the minister, and 
trouble comes of it. What would you do to prevent that? 

Mr. Moody — I should say the minister had not been faithful in 
building up his people. I don't think there is any trouble of that 
kind in a good many churches where members lead. Dr. Ouyler 
does not lead his own prayer-meeting Friday night; and what we 
want is to bring out the talent that lies buried in the church; and if 
we don't bring it out in the evening meetings, I don't know how we 
will. 

Here a delegate informed the meeting that Dr. Cuyler never leads 
his prayer-meetings, but sits in his congregation, sometimes speak- 
ing, and sometimes not. 

Q. Would you advise having a young people's meeting, separate 
from the regular church prayer-meeting? 

Mr. Moody — I always have had in our church in Chicago. We 
have children's meetings once a week, young people's meetings; and 
then a meeting Friday night for all, old and young. 

Q. Is there any relation between united work and united prayer? 

Mr. Moody — If they get to praying well, they will work well. 

Q. How about the ministers praying and preaching, too? 

Mr. Moody — I think it is a good deal better to divide the ground. 
If a minister does all the praying and preaching and singing, the 
church will do all the sleeping. 

Q. Do you believe in calling on people to pray and speak in the 
prayer meeting? 

Mr. Moody — My theory is one thing, and my practice another. I 
have always advocated open prayer meetings; but when our noon 
prayer meetings because so large, we often had men whom we did 
not know coming up and talking and talking and not saying any- 
thing; and others, who had come a hundred miles just to be present 
at that meeting; and so we have had to put it into the hands of 
those on the platform. Still, I stick to my theory that it is better to 
have an open meeting. You sometimes get things that grate upon 
your nerves; but, at the same time, you get things that you would 
not get if you took it into your own hands. If men ruin a meeting, 
you must talk with them personally and make them keep still. 
Now, you sometimes call on a man to pray when he has not got the 
spirit of prayer in him; and that is one of the reasons why I object 
to calling on men. Some men are called on to pray that just pray 
a meeting dead. 

Q. What would you do with the brother who prays the same 
prayer over and over again? 

Mr. Moody — I should see him privately and talk with him about 
his own soul; because very often you find that these men are out of 
communion with God, and are just keeping up the forms. 

Q. If you tell a man to be short and he don't obey, what then? 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 757 

Mr. Moody — I would have a bell. 

Q. Suppose you drive him away by that method, what then? 

Mr. Moody — Let him go. Five men will come and take his place. 

Q. Is it wise to adhere to a series of topics? 

Mr. Moody — I would say yes, and I would say no. Sometimes 
you are in the midst of a series and some special interest breaks out; 
then let your series go. Make the point that your meetings must be 
interesting. 

Q. Suppose a prosy speaker is an old minister who always takes 
part, what would you do? 

Mr. Moody — I would deal with him as I would with any one else. 
I would not allow any man to ruin the meeting. 

Q. In a social prayer meeting during the week, do you advise 
that women take part in the prayer? 

Mr. Moody — That is a controverted point; some say yes, and some 
say no; so we will let them have their own way. 

Q. Would you stop a man's prayer by a bell? 

Mr. Moody — If a man's prayer don't seem to go higher than his 
head, I should not hesitate to ring him down. 

Q. If a man prays in every prayer meeting, and there is a general 
doubt about his standing, what then? 

Mr. Moody — I would go and labor with him; and if I thought he 
was wrong, 1 would tell him so. I think we make a great mistake 
that we don't go to men and just tell them their trouble. 

Q. What should be a man's posture when he is praying? 

Mr. Moody — I don't know. Sometimes I pray right on my face, 
and sometimes I bow; sometimes I have sweet communion with 
God in my bed. It makes no difference how we pray. 

Q. What does the Scripture teach that women should do in prayer 
meeting? 

Mr. Moody — It teaches that they should pray like all the rest of 
them. 

Q. Why do you leave out the woman question by saying it is con- 
troverted ? 

Mr. Moody — There are some men who have one hobby-horse, and 
they trot him out on all occasions. When you come into a union 
meeting like this, where all denominations are represented, let us 
leave aside the questions that provoke only dispute instead of break- 
ing up the convention. 

Q. Why not as well break up a convention as a church by this 
discussion? 

Mr. Moody — Very well. You get up a convention to talk about 
it. This convention has not been called for that. [Laughter.] 

INQUIRY MEETINGS. 

Dr. Fish of Newark said: I do not know why Mr. Moody has re- 



758 CHRISTIAN CONTENTION. 

quested me to open this discussion on "Inquiry Meetings: How can 
they become part of the service in our churches?" except possibly 
that he is familiar with the fact that for a long time I have had 
something to do with the inquiry meetings of about 1200 souls, 
whom I have had the joy and privilege of introducing into the Chris- 
tian church of Newark, upon profession of their faith. Almost all 
of them have come through between my fingers, in careful examina- 
tion and handling in the inquiry-room; and I have never had a year 
of my ministry where the inquiry-room has not been an important 
feature. I intend in the future to make much more of it than I have 
ever done, and never to have a service — unless it be an unusual case 
— in which the inquiry does not form a part. I believe we are ac- 
customed, all of us, to set our nets and not to draw them. When I 
was at the Sea of Galilee, I forced my oars in as far as I could, and 
the fishes ran up in plenteous numbers to see what was going on; 
but I did not catch a single one. The next day a friend of mine 
caught one fish, and the sea was full of them. Jesus said, " I will 
make ye fishers of men." Where there are such multitudes of souls, 
we ought to catch some of them. I think the place to catch souls 
is the inquiry-room. One Sunday night, I was saying from my pul- 
pit that hand-picked fruit was the best kind of fruit; that the or- 
chardman does not pick up the fruit that falls on the ground and put 
it away to keep late in the season, but he gets the fruit that is picked 
one by one, apple by apple, from the bough carefully, and puts it 
away to keep. I said, hand-picked fruit is what we want. An old 
woman who had been going to my church a great while, when she 
heard this, began to work. The next night she brought her husband 
to the meeting. He said: "For twenty years I have not darkened 
the door of a church of God; but my wife has been teasing me so 
much all day to come here to-night, I had to come." "Yes," the 
old woman said, " I thought I would try and do some of the work 
you told us about last night. My husband was the nearest to me; 
and I thought I would begin at home and pick him." 

There are various advantages that accrue from this sort of thing. 
I find it beneficial to my people and me to form the practical ac- 
quaintance that we form in this way, especially with the new con- 
verts. It is not a small matter to become personally acquainted 
with two or three hundred converts, whom you are apt to receive in 
a great city like this. The work of conversion is only the first step. 
If the minister is personally dealing with every soul in the inquiry- 
room, he is prepared to build up and instruct that soul. They also 
form a personal acquaintance with each other. 

In connection with the matter of making the inquiry-room a per- 
manent part of the church services, it is well to make the preaching 
service short. I find out, more and more, that short services are the 
best. (I speak of my Sunday evening services, when I am hand- 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 759 

picking, and am particularly after the soul.) One year ago, I an- 
nounced that my Sunday evening sermon would not exceed fifteen 
or twenty minutes, and after that we would adjourn to the inquiry- 
room. I send down a choir of singers, and station men in the vesti- 
bule to be polite to those who look timidly in, and invite them in, and 
make it seem pleasant to them. In ten minutes it is all organized, 
and the meeting, which I study to make social and free, is without 
any of the stiffness that brother Moody says kills everything; and 
every night we are given some precious souls. Let us never set our 
net without drawing it, to see if there will be some fish there. Let 
us strike while the iron is hot, and let us make it hot by striking, by 
making our sermons so consumingly full of the desire to save souls 
that are there present, that all with whom we come in contact will 
be conscious that we are earnestly after them; and so we shall have 
inquirers the year round. 

Dr. Booth said: I respond to Mr. Moody's request because I made 
up my mind in the beginning to acquiesce in every direction of his, 
and say, w Yes," whenever he said, Come. I do not know much 
practically about the subject; but we all understand more or less 
that the inquiry meeting is consistent with the whole truth of the 
principles we are working for. How shall we put the inquiry meet- 
ing on the top of the Sabbath services? One night I had charge of 
the after-meeting here; and just beforehand, Brother Sankey said to 
me, " After they have entered, do you draw the net." It was the 
first time I had heard it; and I determined I would. I said, one 
Sabbath morning, after preaching on the text, " Come, for all things 
are now ready," this sermon presupposes and involves an invitation, 
now and here. It does not imply that you are to go away after the 
sermon and spend two or three hours exposed to the influence of the 
world, the flesh, and the devil, but then and there to give them an 
opportunity of accepting Christ. Such a thing as an inquiry meet- 
ing had never taken place under my sober ministry in my staid 
church, but I resolved to do it; and ten people came in that very 
first night and accepted Christ, and one of the ten was a dear young 
man whom I had been yearning after for years. The inquiry meet- 
ing is according to the plan of the gospel as a proclamation. The 
difficulty is that all sermons are not intended to mount up to that 
climax. If our sermons are mere orations, and theories of Chris- 
tianity, such an invitation is incongruous and absurd; but when the 
sermon says " Come," from beginning to end, when it is appended 
to the cross, when it is bleeding with tears and sobs all the way 
through, then we can say "Come." Suppose only ten come? There 
will be fifty who will go away and come the next night, probably. 
Look at this assembly. Here is a simple gospel preached to sinners, 
not as a demonstration, not as a plea against infidelity, but as a proc- 
lamation; and it has held New York for a month, and I believe, if it 



760 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

could go on for six months more, we could almost disband our police 
force. [Applause.] 

Charles Dickens eight years ago went into the Victoria Theatre, 
in the East End of London. He sat looking in at the door, and an 
English clergyman was preaching, telling the story of converting a 
philosopher. It was such an audience as would gather at the Five 
Points here in New York. Mr. Dickens, whose heart grew tenderer 
as he drew nearer to the grave, looked in and said: " Looking in at 
the door out of the mire and dust of my way of life, I hear the story 
of your saved philosopher; but," said he, " when a man goes to 
London that will take the story of the dying thief on the cross, 
whom Jesus forgave, and preach that in London, it will be a sight to 
see." Well, New York has seen it; it is here. 

Mr. Moody closed the discussion as follows: 

If the ministers would encourage their members to be scattered 
among the audience, to never mind their pews, but sit back by the 
door if need be, or in the gallery, where they can watch the faces of 
the audience, it would be a good thing. In Scotland, I met a man 
who with his wife would go and sit among them, as they said, to 
watch for souls. When they saw any one who seemed impressed, 
they would go to him after the meeting and talk with him. Nearly 
all the conversions in that church during the last fifteen months had 
been made through that influence. Now, if we could only have 
from thirty to fifty members of the church whose business it is just to 
watch, and you laymen and laywomen to afterwards clinch them in. 
The best way in our regular churches is to let the workers all help 
pull the net in. You will get a good many fishes; it won't be now and 
then one, but scores and scores. Now, a stranger coming into a 
church likes to have some one speak to him. He does not feel in- 
sulted at all. A young man coming to New York a stranger and 
going to church, if some one asks him to go into the inquiry-room 
it makes him happy and cheers him. Two young men came into our 
inquiry-room here the other night, and after a convert had talked 
with them, and showed them the way, the light broke in upon them. 
They were asked, "Where do you go to church?" They gave the 
name of the church where they had been going. Said one, " I ad- 
vise you to go and see the minister of that church." They said, 
"We don't want to go there any more; we have gone there for six 
years and no one has spoken to us." 

A man was preaching about Christians recognizing each other, in 
heaven, and some one said, " I wish he would preach about recog- 
nizing each other on earth." In one place where I preached, where 
there was no special interest, I looked over the great hall of the old 
circus building where it was held, and saw men talking to other men 
here and there. I said to the Secretary of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, who got up the meeting, "Who are those men?" 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 761 

He said, "They are a band of workers." They were all scattered 
through the hall, and preaching and watching for souls. Out of the 
fifty of them, forty-one of their number had got a soul each and were 
talking and preaching with them. We have been asleep long enough. 
When the laity wake up and try and help the minister, the minis- 
ter will preach better. If the minister finds he has not been draw- 
ing the net right, if a good many in his church go to work and help- 
him, he will do better; he will prepare the sermons with that one 
thing in view. Will this draw men to Christ? 

I do not see how men can preach without inquiry-meetings. I 
like to see the converts. One minister in Scotland said he did not 
believe in disturbing the impression. If he had made an impression, 
he did not want any one to say anything. He said, "After you sow 
the seed, you don't want to go and dig it up to see whether it has 
sprouted." But I told him the farmers all harrow it in, after it is 
sowed." [Applause.] 

TRAINING YOUNG CONVERTS AND LAY TEACHERS. 

Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., said: "Our failure to train young con- 
verts in the faith has resulted in the present Loadicean condition of 
the church. If the young converts who, in the last ten years, have 
been brought into the churches in this city had been systematically 
and perseveringly instructed in God's Word and in methods of work, 
we should not be so greatly surprised at the occurrences of the past 
four weeks; and I am satisfied that very much dishonor is done to 
the Holy Ghost, in consequence of the failure of the church to train 
its converts. People constantly say, "Do you think the converts in 
this revival are going to stick?" That will depend upon the faith- 
fulness of the church; and in the failure of very many of them, the 
Holy Ghost bears the rebuke of our own laziness. In reference to 
this training, it seems to me there are three distinct departments: 
In the Word, in the worship, and in the work of the church. Some 
of the converts come into our churches from skeptical life, ignorant 
even of the succession of the books of the Bible. Most of the Bible 
is an unknown territory, and we need to train our young converts 
in the texts of the Word. 

I would limit them to testimony, in speaking before the church. 
I do not believe in experience meetings for young converts. When 
we are confessing Christ, we are safe; but when we are professing 
religion, we are on dangerous grounds. When some one asked 
Bishop Griswold, of Richmond, "Bishop, have you much humility?' T 
he said, "None to speak of." Most people have too much to 
speak of. 

The church is a body of workers, and not a body to be worked 
upon. Everybody is thinking, now-a-days: "Why does not the 



^02 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

pastor take care of me? I am a wandering sheep, and ought to be 
looked after." But the pastor has not, in his relation, the analogy of 
the shepherd to the fold. The church ought to be a body of work- 
ers. The young convert ought to be trained in his place as a worker, 
and the pastor is the leader of the work. He is the general. He is 
to do what this man has been doing here for six weeks past, " boss- 
ing" everybody, directing everybody in the way in which he is to do 
his work. Let him specially set every man to work, if possible, in 
the line of his secular occupation. Let him use a physician, for in- 
stance, at the bedside of the sick and suffering and in his assign- 
ments of work consult the secular occupation of the men. Thus it 
is that the young converts very soon become strong officers for 
Christ. 

SERVICE OP SONG. 

Mr. Sankey said: The question is, "How shall the service of song 
be conducted in the Lord's work?" and for the short time we have 
here this morning to discuss it, we don't propose to go into any elab- 
orate exposition, but simply to get down at once to the practical 
workings of the question, How can the service of song be conducted 
most successfully, to lead to the best results in the service of the 
Lord? Now, as there are so many different forms of work, we will 
have to take them up in order, commencing first with the church, 
then with the prayer-meeting, then the Sunday-school, then the 
evangelistic work. 

I am very glad, indeed, to see and to know that the power of sa- 
cred song is being recognized not only in our own, but in other 
lands; and now as it is being recognized, the question comes up, How 
can we utilize this power, how can we best use it in God's house, 
and to the best advantage for the church of God? Before I go 
further, let me drop one statement here that will go to prove and es- 
tablish the fact that the power of sacred song is laying hold of all 
people of this land and of others, to a greater extent, probably, than 
for many, many years. The little hymn book that was published in 
England, containing many or most of the hymns we are singing here 
to-day, has taken such a hold upon the people — I think, upon the 
common people — that not less than 5,000,000 copies have been sold 
of that little book; I mean the music and the words together. They 
have spread all over the world, and the people are singing these 
songs away off in India and Africa. No later than last week, I got 
a copy of the hymns translated into the Kaffir language; and I have 
as many as twenty or thirty translations altogether. 

Now comes the question, How can we utilize these songs and this 
service the best? In the first place in regard to the church, I would 
not have an artistic quartette choir. The first thing I would do 
would be to discharge them, to remove them. [Applause.] Now 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 763 

remember, I don't speak against these persons, individually — there 
are just as nice people in these quartette choirs as elsewhere; but 
against the service which they attempt to lead, or rather succeed in 
monopolizing. I could not praise God here if I could not sing, too, 
as well as the choir. You must join and praise God for yourselves. 
Therefore, in their stead, I would have a large Christian choir. I 
would have all the Christians I could gather in, from the congrega- 
tion or elsewhere; and let them lead the service of praise. Some 
people, I know, will object to this; but I cannot help it. Our expe- 
rience for the last two years has been this, that we have made it a 
rule that we will only have Christians lead the praise; and I think 
one of the principal reasons of our success has been that we have 
tried, as far as we could, to get those who love the Lord, and love to 
sing right out of their hearts. It may not be so artistic as some, but 
the Lord has certainly blessed this sort of singing. I would have 
the singers near the ministers; I don't like the choir to be so far 
away from the minister. They are separated from him, and probably 
not in sympathy with him. He cannot speak to them, and they can- 
not counsel with him. There are two powers in the church — oppo- 
sition powers, sometimes they are, which ought never to be allowed. 
If we can have Christians lead the singing, you will not be ashamed 
to have them before the congregation, that the congregation may 
see them; and their deportment will be such as becomes the house 
of God. Away back in the galleries, often we don't know what is 
going on; but if they are here before the congregation, we can see 
them, and they can be a help to the minister. 

And there is another plan of having a screen, having the choir in 
the pulpit back of the minister, but behind a screen, so that as soon 
as the singing is done they will drop behind the screen, like a jack 
in the box. [Laughter.] I would have that screen removed; and 
your minister should insist upon it that the choir give as good atten- 
tion as the congregation does. People who do not give attention 
to the Word of God when preached, should not lead the service of 
song in the house of God. I have found this, that by having my 
choir give attention to the addresses in this room, the contagion 
spreads, and the audience give attention, too; but if this choir was 
disposed to be talking, reading books, writing notes, etc., the audi- 
ence would be watching them to see what they were doing, and the 
attention would be distracted, and valuable results lost. The most 
exact attention should be given to the preacher while he is preach- 
ing. 

I will not dwell further upon that, except to speak about the in- 
strument. I want to talk about the practical things, with which 
you have to come in contact. I have often found this to be the case, 
that the large organ drowns the people's voices. Now, it is not so 
much the fault of the organ as it is the fault of the man who plays it. 



764 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

A large organ can be pla}^ed very softly, so that the people's voices 
are not drowned; but you usually find it the case that the organ is 
played so hard as to shake the whole building, and to shake the 
whole people, so that they can hardly sing themselves. I would 
ask the organist to play very softly, so as to have the people led by 
the organ's tones, and not their attention taken up by it. I would 
rather have a small organ than a large one; a cabinet organ, or a 
small organ near the pulpit, not to drown the people's voices, but 
simply to support them. I don't care if this organ is not heard ten 
feet away, if the choir hear it. What we want is the human voice. 
There is nothing equal to that in the world; and if we can keep our 
leaders correctly in tune and time with the instrument, it is all we 
want. That is why the people join so heartily here in these songs. 
I might have a large organ here. I don't want it to interfere, how- 
ever. I cannot sing with that great organ going; for I get to listen- 
ing to it, and watching to see how the organist plays. 

Now, we will go on to the prayer meeting. How would you con- 
duct the singing in a prayer meeting? If you have in your con- 
gregation a Christian man who is a good singer, I would have him 
lead the singing. I would have him at the prayer meeting. Very 
often some very good man, and sometimes a very good woman, will 
start up a song entirely out of tune and out of pitch, so that no one 
can join with them, and they worry through it, nearly breaking their 
voices. I would take control of this, and say, "Now, Brother 
Smith or Brother Jones will have charge of the singing:" and 
if Brother Smith wants to sit and have one or two friends gathered 
about him, all the better, and let him pitch the tune. In regard to 
an instrument at the prayer meeting, some are opposed to it, and 
some not. If I had a good singer, one whose voice was strong 
enough, I would have him instead of an instrument; but if not, I 
would have some one who could play the organ in the proper key, 
and then the people can follow him. Then, I would introduce many 
of the Sunday-school hymns into the prayer meeting. I would not 
sing all the old tunes we love so well, always. Of course, they are 
good; but we want variety. Bring in new hymns, now and then. 
The question of introducing new tunes into the service of the church 
is a very important one. Now and then a new tune should be in- 
troduced. The best plan I have found is that the tune should be 
sung as a voluntary frequently, before it is given out as a hymn. I 
would exclude altogether operatic pieces from the church of God; 
and I would have my choir understand that these plain gospel hymns 
in the worship of God are far better than the finest operatic hymns 
you can find. [Applause.] Leave them to the opera. Don't bring 
them into the house of God. 

Now, in regard to Sunday-school service, I need not say much 
about that. I may say that, in this country, we have set an ex- 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 765 

ample to the world in regard to Sunday-school singing. It is no- 
where, I think, so well conducted as in our own country. But there 
are a few places that don't have good singing. To those I would 
say, get an instrument; for the children love music. Get a lady or 
gentleman to play, and gather a few singers around in front of the 
instrument, and have them sing frequently, I would talk to the 
children frequently about the hymns, though not too long. I would 
not let the singing diverge into a singing-school. Sing on the topics 
that have been discussed during the day, keeping the minds of the 
children and the teachers in one direction. 

Now, the evangelistic services. These are being conducted very 
extensively all over the country now; and when you bring all de- 
nominations together, I would ask all the ministers to send to the 
place of meeting the very best singers he has in his choir or con- 
gregation, for I find sometimes the best singers are in the congrega- 
tion, and not in the choir, for some reason or other; and I would 
thus have all the denominations come together, saying: " For this 
time, and for these services, we will unite on one hymn, singing for 
Jesus, singing that we may know Christ." All these meetings of the 
choirs, I should think, ought to be opened and closed with prayer. 
I think it is a great thing to open a meeting with prayer. The peo- 
ple feel that they are in the presence of God, and all will work to- 
gether in the sweetest harmony to further the cause of Christ. 

I would make the point, too, to have the people supplied with 
hymns; for I think the progress of a meeting is oftentimes greatly 
disturbed by the people not having the words before them. Mr. 
Spurgeon comments on the hymns, and tells his congregation how 
he wants them sung, and so the people become deeply interested; 
and there is not a man in his church that is not singing at the top 
of his voice. If the minister don't manifest any interest in the 
singing, and is studying the heads of his sermon, the choir get care- 
less and listless. Many a man will come to church and the sermon 
will pass into and out of his ears and be forgotten; but the hymn 
will linger and work for good. 

I remember in Philadelphia, years ago, when I was a little boy, I 
heard an old minister get up and read the hymn, "There is a foun- 
tain filled with blood." I have thought of that old man, with his 
gray hair, and tears streaming down his face as he read that hymn, 
ever since; though I have forgotten the sermon and everything else. 
I want to spend five minutes more, that you may ask me some prac- 
tical questions. If I have any information, I will be pleased to give it 
to you. 

Q. Would you not think it better to encourage congregational 
singing by abolishing the choir altogether, and have it led by a 
single voice? A. I think not, from the fact that very few precentors 
have the power of voice to lead two or three thousand people. 



766 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

They have to labor so hard in leading that they don't create that 
sympathetic feeling toward the singing that should exist. There is 
no impropriety in it; but I would not advise any man or woman to 
attempt it alone. 

Q. What about smaller meetings? A. The same will apply to 
small ones. 

Q. Would you have the leader of a prayer meeting pitch the 
tune? A. If a singer, he could do it; but, of course, the man who 
leads is not always a singer. I think we would have a hard time if 
I should ask brother Moody to lead the singing here to-day. [Loud 
laughter.] 

Q. If you have not got any singers who are Christians, what 
would you do? A. I would commence evangelistic services at once, 
and get some. [Loud laughter.] 

Q. Would you recommend solo singing in the ordinary church 
services? A. Not as a rule. 

Mr. Moody — I would if I had Sankey. [Loud applause.] 

Mr. Sankey — Let me for a moment speak of this solo singing. 
I read in the Word here, " Let the Word of Christ dwell in you 
richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in 
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs; singing with grace in your 
hearts to the Lord." These are hymns which teach and preach the 
gospel, and these are not hymns of praise. I believe there is another 
power of singing which many have not discovered yet, that of 
preaching: the gospel. There is no praise in the hymn, " Jesus of 
Nazareth passeth by;" yet it has been blessed to hundreds of souls. 
It is not praising God at all. When it comes to praising God, I 
will join in the general singing as heartily as anyone else. If I want 
to preach to you in song, 1 would ask you to listen. 

Q. Would you ask the congregation to sing in unison? A. As a 
rule, I would ask them to join in the air or leading part, and let the 
choir bring in the tenor and bass and other parts. If, however, a 
man in the audience is a good singer and his voice is better adapted 
to singing bass, let him sing bass. 

Rev. Dr. Taylor said: It seems to me, as a foundation of all that 
is said and done on this matter, that we ought to have bright ideas 
of the importance of praise. Let us think of what the sacrifice of 
praise in the house of the Lord is designed to do. It prepares the 
way for the descent of the Holy Spirit into the heart. Bring me a 
minstrel, said Elisha; and while listening to the music the Spirit of 
the Lord came down and he prophesied. Very frequently, through the 
music of a song of praise, the Spirit of God in his glory has come 
down and filled the living temple of the human heart; for it not only 
prepares the way for the sermon to follow, but very often clinches 
the effect produced by the sermon. I heard the beautiful story 
about Toplady's conversion. He went into a barn in Ireland, where 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 767 

he heard a Primitive Methodist minister preach the gospel. At the 
close, the minister gave out the hymn, "Come, ye sinners, poor and 
wretched." It seemed to him then that the whole company of the 
congregation took up the appeal from the minister's lips, and in- 
stead of one appeal there was that of hundreds. Then he gave his 
heart to Christ, and nobly did he honor the obligation in his latter 
life by laying on the altar of Christ the hymn that we are so fond of: 

"Rock of ages cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee." 

Then, again, singing sustains the heart in trial. Very often in this 
country we are in the habit of serenading our great men; but oh! no 
songs in the ear of God are like the serenades which go up from the 
hearts of God's children, in the night of trial. He comes forth from 
his throne to speak words of comfort and cheer. Then, again, it 
braces the heart for conflict. After his last supper Christ sang a 
hymn. The Lord Jesus sang, and sang with Gethsemane in view, to 
brace himself up for conflict with the prince of this world. Who 
does not know, too, how Luther strung himself up for his reformation 
work by that noble version of the 46th psalm, termed the Marseil- 
laise of the Reformation. Mr. Sankey has covered the whole ground 
in the admirable address to which we have listened; so in my re- 
marks I will limit myself to congregational singing, and will look at 
it from the point of view of the pastor. Mr. Sankey has a little for- 
gotten that, while conducting the evangelistic services, he has every- 
thing in his power; the pastor has to take the church with him. 
The church must be like Wordsworth's cloud, and move all together, 
if at all. Ministers have to suffer, like Moses, for a good many things 
for the hardness of people's hearts. [Laughter.] If we want to 
come up to the ideal pitch of perfection, we should probably end by 
making discord all around. So we have got to make the best of 
things, as at present. We ought to be limited in our range of selection 
of hymns. I have a profound conviction that the great size of our 
congregational hymn-books is killing congregational singing. 

It is not possible for the great multitude of the congregation to 
acquire the facilities to sing all the tunes needed for the rendering 
of these hymns. The first thing I would recommend a minister to 
do is, by a species of natural selection, to make his own little selec- 
tion out of the big one; and if, by any accident, he should give out 
one that dragged, then put a beacon on it and not give it out again. 
[Laughter.] Let ministers give good heed to the counsels Mr. 
Sankey addressed to them, with regard to the necessity of cultivat- 
ing good feeling between them and the choir. If they persist in look- 
ing on the choir as hirelings, it will develop the hireling spirit. 
Don't continue to look on them as necessary evils. [Laughter.] Go 
and have a free and frank and brotherly conference with them. 



768 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

Don't manage it by authority; you can never do that. [Laughter.] 
Manage them by influence and love. Talk sincerely and earnestly 
on the subject. One more thing I would say, if we have good con- 
gregational singing, we must have rousing preaching. [Laughter.] 
The best way to heat a church is to have the stove in the pulpit. 
[Laughter.] 

Rev. Dr. Hastings in an address in some measure differed from 
the principles laid down by Mr. Sankey. He said, first of all, he had 
not one particle of sympathy for the church suffering under the curse 
of mercenary choirs, nor would he until the church would wake up 
to the fact of the shameful neglect of which she was guilty in this 
matter of praising God. You ministers, said he, who are tortured 
by quartettes, I am not sorry for you. Have you gone to the rehear- 
sal? have you taken them by the hand and found out their thoughts 
about the praise of God? have you ever shown any sympathy for 
them personally? When they are singing in church, are you look- 
ing over notes, or looking over the Bible, or occupying yourself with 
something else? If I tread on Mr. Moody's toes a little for a minute 
— one service which is permitted to be interrupted is, the service of 
song. Mr. Moody, while Dr. Adams was praying didn't say " Open 
the doors;" but the moment the hymn is singing he says, " Now 
open the doors and let them in." [Loud laughter.] The most mag- 
nificent thing I ever heard in my life is the lifting up of voices in 
this great congregation. I don't blame Mr. Moody; it is only of a 
piece with the common habit of the church, throughout the country. 
What Brother Sankey said this morning was admirable sense for the 
millennium; but we are but little past the middle of the nineteenth 
century yet. Let us work toward it. I have got a pretty good pair of 
legs, long enough for ordinary use. [Laughter.] For many years, 
while my sainted father was with me, I had the delight of having 
my choir just as I wanted; and when the crisis came, I said to my 
legs, " Now do your duty;" and I went on the hunt, just as Mr. 
Sankey recommended, to find singers in the congregation to make 
themselves targets for the ungenerous criticism of the congregation. 
My congregation is better than the average on that subject. 
[Laughter.] Singers have some rights which Christians are bound 
to respect. They are not respected by the church and ministers as 
they should be; they are held at arms-length. The average condi- 
tion of musical culture, in a given congregation, must determine 
what the singing should be, and that congregation cannot ignore the 
fact without a violation of nature. I would rather have a first-rate 
quartette than a first-rate precentor. There is more music in it. 
You can have a Christian influence prevailing in a quartette choir as 
well as in a choral choir. The churches have not lifted up this ser 
vice and elevated it with the service of prayer. I long for the re- 
vival of love and joy in the Holy Ghost, to bring us to our senses on 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 769 

this subject. Why, look at the days of Solomon, when four thou- 
sand were set apart for the service of song. There is not a church I 
ever knew of that took any careful measures to train up either a 
leader or a choir for themselves. 

The second hour's services were now commenced, Mr. Moody say- 
ing amid laughter, "Now I don't know how to get the people in;" 
adding, after giving out the second hymn: " Let's all rise and sing. 
Never mind the doors. If you are paying attention to what you are 
singing you won't notice the people coming in. If I were to set 
apart two minutes for them to come in, then these ministers would 
get talking, and I couldn't stop them." [Laughter.] After a short 
preliminary service, the following queries were put, and answered 
by Mr. Moody: 

Q. How can you introduce new hymns into the church? A. One 
good way is to have one night given to sacred song, and singing new 
hymns and tunes as well as old ones; and then I would have the 
people have the books in their home. 

Q. How can I get the speakers to be short in the prayer-meetings? 
A. Be short yourself, and set a good example. [Laughter.] 

Q. My church is divided. I can't get them united in special ser- 
vices. What am I to do? A. Just get as many as you can, and just 
get each one to influence those that are standing out. 

Q. I am a pastor in a town with about ten thousand inhabitants. 
I cannot get the young men out to our meetings. What am I to do? 
A. The best thing to do is, just to have a yoke-fellows' band, form 
the Christian young men into a band. Suppose there were only 
three of them; let them meet and pray together. The little band 
will soon grow; and in the course of a few months, they will be 
thirty. Let your preaching be short; throw away your manuscript, 
and preach right at them. [Laughter.] If you see a man is gone 
asleep, make up your mind that you have get to close. There ought 
to be no trouble about that. A man can get a hymn book for five 
cents. He can drop off one cigar and get it. The great trouble is 
that a great many only have the books in the church; they ought to 
have them in their homes. 

Q. What do you think of having a service devoted entirely to sa- 
cred song opened and closed by prayer? A. A very good thing. 

Q. What would you do to get people out to hear the gospel 
preached? A. Get them out to hear it sung. In that way, you will 
get them acquainted with it. Touch it up with some little story, 
when you give it out; and before you know it, you are preaching to 
them. 

Q. What is the best book for inquirers? A. Well, the book writ- 
ten by John is about the best I have ever seen. [Laughter.] 

Q. How would you wake up an interest in the church prayer- 
meeting? A. Why, wake up yourself. Shake hands with the 
49 



770 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

young men; say you are glad to see them; and you may be sure 
they will come back again. I believe men living in a country dis- 
trict, have, in this respect, more advantages than we in cities. When 
I was in my native village, I had all those long winter evenings to 
myself; and if there had been such meetings, I would have been 
glad to go to them. When I went back to my native town, last 
summer, I preached there for a short time. When I was ready to 
go away, some of the young converts asked me what they should do. 
I told them to go right into the school-houses, and hold a series of 
meetings. The result was that these houses are filled with people 
at those meetings. I tell you, the nation is hungry for the gospel. 

Q. If a church is sadly in debt, would you favor a fair? A. I am 
a sworn enemy to them. I never knew one yet but the devil got in 
before we got through. Just conceive for a moment, Paul going 
down to Corinth to open a fair. God's people have money enough; 
they don't want to go into the world to get it. There was a time 
when the church was trying to get out of the world; but now the 
world has come into the church. A young lady is put behind a table, 
to draw young people by her beauty. I don't know when I was 
more mortified than by an advertisement of a church fair in the West, 
where it was said that any young man could come in and take a kiss 
from the handsomest woman at the fair, for twenty-five cents. I 
hope the time is come when we 'shall be rid of these abominations. 
It would be a good deal better to preach in the streets than to get a 
church put up in that way. 

Q. How would you get members to work? 

A. Well, keep them out of fairs. [Laughter.] I don't think you 
can move the church in a mass; you have got to work with them 
privately, and personally. A great many persons would work, if 
they were shown what to do; and there are a good many others of 
executive ability in the church, who could set them about it. Sup- 
pose the politicians wanted to carry New York; they would know 
how every man would vote. The most precious hours I ever spent 
were employed going from house to house, preaching Christ. There 
is plenty of work; the fields are already white for the harvest. I 
remember, one time in Chicago, I was asked to take an interest in 
the children of a saloon-keeper, who was a notorious infidel. I took 
the man's address. I went down and found the old fellow behind 
the bar. I told him my errand; and I had to get out a good deal 
quicker than I got in. I thought I would try him the second time, 
when he would be a little less under the influence of drink; but he 
made me go out again. I went back then the third time. "Well," 
said he, "look here, young man; you were talking about the Bible: 
I will read the New Testament if you will read Paine's c Age of 
Reason.'" " Agreed," said I; but he had the best of the bargain. 
[Laughter.] I had a hard job to read it through. I went down to 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 771 

the saloon to find out how he was getting on. All the time, he 
would talk about Paine's "Age of Reason." One Saturday, I tried 
to get him to go to church on Sunday. "Now," he says, "if you 
want church, you must have it in my saloon. This is as good a 
church as anv in Chicago. You can have preaching here, if you 
want to." "Well," says I, "to-morrow morning at 11 o'clock I'll be 
here." " Look here, young man, I want to do part of it myself." I 
said, "Now, let us distinctly understand how much you and I will 
have. Now, suppose you and your friends take the first forty-five 
minutes; and I take the last fifteen." He agreed to this. That 
Sunday morning, I took a little boy with me that God had taught 
how to pray. That is some years ago, and I remember how weak I 
felt as I went down to that infidel saloon. I found, when I got 
around, he had gone to a neighboring saloon where he had engaged 
two rooms with folding doors, and had them filled with infidels and 
deists, and all shades of belie?. They first began to ask me ques- 
tions; but I said: " Now you go on with your forty-five minutes, and 
I shall listen." So they got to wrangling among themselves. [Laugh- 
ter.] Some thought there was a Jesus, and some not. When the 
time was up, I said: "Now look here, my friends, your time is up; 
we always open our meetings with prayer." After I had prayed, the 
little boy cried to God to have mercy on these men. They got up 
one by one, one going out by this door and one by another. They 
were all gone very soon. The old infidel put his hand on my shoul- 
der, and said I might have his children. He has since been one of 
the best friends I had in Chicago. So, you see, it must be personal 
work with us all. 

Q. What is the best book on revivals? A. The Bible. {Loud 
applause.] 

Q. To what extent is it profitable to use the talents of Christian 
women in special efforts? A. The women in the inquiry meetings 
here are of great help. A woman's meeting is held every day, at. 
the close of the noon prayer meeting; and their inquiry-room is al- 
ways nearly full. No one can visit so well as a woman. The time 
is coming when their will be ten women missionaries for one we have 
now. A woman can go into the kitchen, and sit right down and 
talk with a woman at the wash-tub. The poor woman will tell a 
person of her own sex her troubles, when she will not converse with 
a man. What a blessing it would be if in this city, as in London, 
ladies of wealth and position would visit the woor. 

Q. How could you get your choir in the front of the church, when 
they insist on staying in the rear? A. I tell you how it is done at 
Northfield. They have got an organ in the gallery, away far from 
the pulpit. I objected to this, but not only that, I didn't see the ob- 
ject in having singing behind the people. Our ears are not put on 



m 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 



in the wrong way. [Loud laughter.] I said I would send to Brad- 
bury and get an organ myself; and then they brought it down. 

Q. Suppose none of the congregation understand music? A. 
Well, I don't understand music; but I can sing as well as Mr. San- 
key can. [Laughter.] I can sing from my heart. The fact is, peo- 
ple have gone to sleep. Larks never sing in their nests; it is when 
they get out. [Laughter.] A little boy who had been converted 
was constantly singing. While his papa was reading the paper one 
day, he came up to him and said: "Papa, you are a Christian; but 
you never sing." Says the father, "I have got established." [Laugh- 
ter.] Not long after, they went out to drive; but the horse would 
not go. The father got vexed and said, " 1 wonder what ails him?" 
" T think," said the boy, " he has got established." [Laughter.] 

Q. How far shall persons be urged to confess Christ? A. You 
will see in Romans 10: 10. If we are to be soldiers of Christ, we 
are to put on the livery of Christ, arid let the world know. 

Q. Should the influence of the Spirit be waited for? A. Our 
work is to preach Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit is to con- 
vince men that Christ is the Son of God. He will do his work if we 
will do ours. 

Q. Should a pastor lead a weekly meeting of young converts, in 
order to train them in Bible study? A. A very good thing. We 
should teach them both Word and works. In an article written by 
a friend of mine, it is asked, How is a man to mow if he does not 
sharpen his scythe? What would you say of a man who is always 
sharpening his scythe? The quickest way to train young converts 
is to put them to work; but the Word should not be neglected. 
When the scythe gets dull, it should be sharpened again. 

Q. How about fault-finders? A. I would deal with them person- 
ally, and ask them how it is with their own souls. 

Q. How can you make sinner feel their sinfulness? A. That is 
God's work; you can't do it. 

Q. If a minister or some influential layman should object to your 
working? A. I should preach in a cottage, or elsewhere. Never 
force yourself on a people; but if you are faithful, they will be glad 
to hear you. 

" HOW TO GET HOLD OF NON-CHURCH GOERS." 

Rev. Dr. Armitage opened the debate on " How to get hold of 
non-church goers," saying: ." I like this better than the usual form of 
the question, which is, 'How can we reach the masses?' It is sharper, 
and goes more directly home. It draws the line distinctly between 
the church and thos^ who are not the church. First, we are to get 
hold of non-church goers by going after them. They will not come 
to us, The Savior of the world went about seeking those that were 
fa fre. ?3 vpf]; and then he saved those whom he had sought. He is 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 773 

our pattern in that matter. He did not expect the wanderer from 
the house of Israel to return to the fold; but as the Shepherd, he 
left the ninety and nine and went into the wilderness after the sheep 
that had gone astray, and put it on his shoulder and brought it to his 
flock. Our Lord did not wait for the people to come to him. He 
went after the people, into the cities and villages, everywhere. How 
can we get hold of non-church goers? It does not mean simply 
moving them, but there is a nerve about the old Anglo-Saxon way 
of putting the question when it says, getting hold of them; it indi- 
cates muscle, nerve, spirit, will, resolution, industry, perseverence. 
It is exactly as Jesus did. We must fall back perpetually upon our 
Lord's example in this thing; and when we go to the non-church- 
goer we must urge the great facts of Christianity — Christ's birth, 
Christ's life, Christ's death, and resurrection and ascension. We 
must get hold of them by an intense love for them; nothing less will 
open their hearts to the church. Love is always unconventional. It 
knows nothing about poverty; it knows nothing about ignorance; it 
knows nothing about the distinctions of rank and of character. Love 
sweeps away all these distinctions as secondary things. Where you 
visit people in love, you can find that one loving, earnest soul al- 
ways moves another soul. What would you give for a poet unless 
he were in a blaze? What would you give for an orator unless he 
were in a glow? What would you give for a sculptor unless he 
were full of tenderness? What does the non-church-goer think of 
you and me, my friend, when we go to him otherwise than full of 
love, beaming with the love of our Lord Jesus and full of tender 
sympathy? It is said that the natives of India, when they wish to 
quarry out a big stone, first chisel a grove around the block of gran- 
ite; then they kindle a fire along the groove; and when they have 
kindled the fire upon the stone, then they pour into the trench a little 
water, and the rock expands and bursts. This is what we must do 
in serving men, and this is what our Lord Jesus did. He ran the 
chisel round and wrought a groove upon the intellect, and then 
poured his love into the heart; and then the tender tears fell from 
his eyes and the rock broke. Let us not fail to go to his teachings 
for our method of seeking souls. 

There was considerable applause at the close of Dr. Armitage's 
address; but Mr. Moody remarked, " The time at our disposal is so 
short that we haven't any time for applause, and must fill up every 
minute. We will next hear from Rev. Dr. Newton, of Philadelphia." 

Rev. Dr. Newton said: The Lord Jesus when upon earth called 
his people "the salt of the earth;" but the salt is of no use unless it 
be scattered. He also said, " Ye are the light of the world;" but the 
rays of the sun must be dispersed, if they are to give light all over 
the earth. Oh, if the church, by its individual members, would but 
scatter the rays of spiritual light in this way, how many hundreds 



774 CHRISTIAN COJSTVENTION. 

and thousands might be brought within its influence. We may do 
this wherever we go. An Episcopal clergyman in England was 
staying at a hotel, and was waited upon by a little English girl. He 
asked her, "Do you ever pray?" " Oh, no, sir," she replied; "we 
have no time here to pray; I am too busy to do that." "I want 
you to promise me," said the clergyman, "that during the next 
two months you will say three words of prayer every night; and 
when I come here again, at the end of that time, I will give you half a 
crown." "All right," she said; " I will do it." " Well, Jane, I want 
you to say every night, 'Lord, save me.' r He left; and two months 
after vvh-n he came again to the hotel he inquired for Jane, and was 
told; " Oh, she has got too good to stay in a hotel; she has gone to 
the parsonage up yonder." He went to see her; and as she opened 
the door for him she said, "Oh, you blessed man, I don't want your 
half-crown; I have got enough already." And then she told how, 
at first, she had just carelessly run over the words as she was 
going to bed at night; but after the first two weeks she began to 
think what the word "save" meant. Then she got a Bible and found 
the words, "Christ Jesus came into the world to same sinners;" and 
the prayer was no longer a mere form. "Now," she said, "I am 
happy, and I don't wan't your half-crown; but 1 am so thankful 
that you asked me to say that prayer." Wherever we go, let us 
carry 1hat spirit with us, and be ready to speak to all we meet; by 
that means, we shall soon "get hold of non-church goers." Take 
simple means, and use sympathy, feeling, love, and earnestness. In 
the congregation of an earnest minister, there was a man who was 
an infidel, and who prided himself on his opposition to the gospel. 
The minister prepared a sermon, in which, by powerful argument, 
he sought to convince the man of his error. But he sat unmoved 
through it all. When the infidel got home, his little girl came to 
him with her eyes full of tears, and having evidently something upon 
her heart. He asked her why she was crying, and she replied: "1 
am thinking of what my Sunday-school teacher has been telling me 
about what Jesus suffered for us;" and then, looking straight in his 
eyes, she said, " And oh, papa, don't you think we ought to love 
this blessed Jesus?" He had resisted the sermon; but the child's 
words broke him down. He went to his room to pray; and that 
night he went to the church to seek an interest in the prayers of the 
people. When the minister heard of it, he said to his wife, after 
reading over the sermon to her: " There is one great lack about 
that sermon; there is not enough of Jesus in it." He learned the 
lesson which we must all learn; that if we want to reach the hearts 
of men, we must have much of Christ in our sermons and our con- 
versation, and then we may expect God will bless us. 

Rev. Mr. Fletcher, of Dublin, Ireland, said: I am the bearer of 
good news from a far country. Multitudes of people in Ireland, and 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 775 

Scotland and throughout Great Britain bless God for the visit to our 
shores of our dear brothers, Moody and Sankey. Thousands of 
hearts are praying for them every day. Before they came amongst 
us we were very much in the position of the minister alluded to yes- 
terday, who often preached about the recognition of friends in a 
future state [laughter;] but we never saw our way clear to any kind 
of real Christian union among the members of the various Protest- 
ant churches until God in his good providence raised up these two 
men, and sent them over to our shores. Through their influence, 
good men of different denominations have become united, and we 
are now welded together; and we pray that God may bless this 
great country of America, from whence came these two men whose 
labors have been so greatly blessed. And let me say that if ever, 
in God's good providence, they should return, all England, and Scot- 
land, and Ireland will receive them with open arms. [Applause.] Yet 
there were some wise men — men with long faces and long heads 
[laughter} — who prophesied that the work would not be permanent; 
many of the Episcopalian ministers — and let it be understood that I 
am Episcopalian myself, to the back bone, if you please — were of 
this opinion. They said this kind of work is irregular; it will be 
much damage to the church; and some said: " Wait two years; we 
will give you that time; and then see where the converts will be." 
They prophesied that the effects would be " like footprints on the 
sand" of the seashore; you see, they got quite a practical idea. 
[Laughter.] But it was not true. [Applause.] The two years have 
passed since the work in Scotland, and. more than two years since 
that in Ireland; and what is the result? I" say it in the presence of 
my God — not for the praise of men, but for the glory of God — that 
the work is broader and deeper now than it was then. You ask, How 
is this? We had convened in a similar gathering to this < c 50 of the 
cream of our clergy — more than 400 of them Episcopalians, and the 
other 450 belonging to the various dissenting denominations; their 
hearts were warmed; they received a fresh baptism; and now they 
are working in their own city, town, and village parishes, in a way 
they never worked before. Hundreds of clergymen who were thus 
brought together confessed they did not know how to preach until 
they heard a layman. Now they preach eye to eye, heart to heart, 
face to face; and they look for immediate results, believing that 
they may be the means of the salvation of souls, as surely as they 
believe that Jesus lived, and died, and rose again and ascended into 
heaven. That is the way to reach the masses. Now what are you 
to do here? Many of our Episcopalian brethren in Ireland made a 
fatal mistake; and they are mourning for it to-day. And the same 
will be the case if the Episcopalian members hold aloof from this 
movement here. I am sorry there is one absent to-day. You should 
learn from our experience. Take our testimony. Know that this 



?76 



CHBISTIAN CONVENTION. 



work is from God, and that his Spirit is resting upon it. Remember, 
you don't honor the work by coming" into it; but you get great honor 
by being permitted to take part in it. Look only to the honor and 
glory of Jesus, honor him by the circulation and preaching of his 
Word; and thus multitudes will be gathered into the fold of Christ. 

"Rescue the Perishing" was then sung by Mr. Sankey, who re- 
marked that the following verse contained one of the most blessed 
truths that had been uttered in connection with the subject before 
them: 

"Down in the human heart, 

Crushed by the tempter, 
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore ; 

Touched by a loving heart, 

Weakened by kindness, 
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more." 

Rev. Dr. Chambers, of India, said: Two years ago I went into 
Central India, where the name of Jesus had never been heard. One 
day I found myself surrounded by people gathered from all quarters 
determined to stone us, because we spoke of a different God from 
the one they had worshiped. We saw them gather the stones as we 
prepared to preach. I thought I would propose to them to tell them 
a story, and that they should stone us afterward. They agreed to 
this. When I told then of the birth in a manger, and of the God- 
man that came to save us all, of his life and his wonderful works, 
before I had finished they threw down their stones and I saw the 
tears run down their cheeks. I told them at last that my story was 
done, and that they might stone me now, but they said they did not 
want to now; and they brought their money forward that very day, 
and bought eighty of our Bibles. They appointed a committee of 
their noblest citizens, and escorted us back to our camp. Oh, that 
story of Christ has not lost any of its power, and the more we stick 
to it the more the devil will quake; the more we leave all contro- 
versy, the more sinners will be brought to Christ. 

[The speaker then, by request, sang one of the native songs of 
India, translating its poetry.] 

At the call of Mr. Moody an earnest prayer on behalf of the sal- 
vation of the heathen was offered by Rev. Dr. SchafT; and the clos- 
ing speech of the hour was made by Rev. Dr. John Hall. After 
offering words of congratulation and thankfulness in regard to the 
glorious work accomplished through the instrumentality of Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey in Ireland, England, and on this continent, he 
said that the work would be permanent just in proportion as the 
church was diligent. In regard to the subject under consideration, 
" How to reach non-church-goers," he replied that the work should 
be done by each individual Christian, working in their own sphere 
and among their own circle of friends, and specially by special 



CHRISTIAN fVWVWWTTfvir . 7^7 

prayer, on behalf of the conversion of persons in whom our interest 
might be felt. He related circumstances in connection with his own 
church work, illustrating his idea, and showing how one conversion 
often leads to several others being reached. The church was as much 
a New Testament and God-ordained institution as the ministry, and 
work would therefore be best accomplished through that channel. 
He said he would not join in the cry for burning of sermons. Many 
sermons which were read were equally effective as those delivered 
extempore. He would not lay down any rule as to the length of a 
sermon. The worst rubbish he ever heard under the name of a ser- 
mon was preached in a Protestant church in Rome, and it only lasted 
ten minutes; and that was ten minutes too long. His theory was 
that all the trees in God's garden should bear fruit after their kind. 
[Applause.] When all the members of a congregation were en- 
gaged in prayer for individuals in whom they were interested, the 
result would be constant conversions. Nobody gets the glory, but 
the temple is built up, and Christ has all the glory. 

OUR young men: what more can we do for them? 

Mr. John Wanamaker, President of the Philadelphia Y. M. 0. A., 
said: The two questions which are before the convention this after- 
noon lie very close together. Of the non-church-going masses, 
certainly a very large portion, if not the largest, is composed of young 
men. I sometimes think that we forget how large a proportion of 
our population is composed of young men. I should not wonder if, 
in this city alone, there are as many as 350,000 young men out of 
the million and a half people in New York. What a vast company 
it is! What a peculiar company! And whilst I love the church 
dearer than anything else on this earth, yet I cannot but feel that I 
must work both in and out of it to reach this class of young men. 
Satan seems to have seized upon oar young men, and is holding 
them outside the door of the church; and the preaching of our wise 
and faithful ministers therefore does not reach them. Hence, under 
the fostering care and inspiration of the pulpit, the Young Men's 
Christian Associations have been organized. If there is one other 
object these associations have in view, I have, in an acquaintance 
with them of twenty years, not been able to find it out. If we do 
not conduct them in just the manner which seems best, I would say 
to my dear brethren of the ministry, give us your counsel; but don't, 
in your synods, and assemblies, and conferences, move resolutions 
about "certain unordained young men," and so forth, and so forth. 
Come to us, and help us make these associations what you want them 
to be. We mean to do what good we can by means of this " miss- 
ing link " between the church and the outlying masses. [Applause.] 
These young men are sorely tempted, and they need our help. Mr. 



778 CHRISTIAN CONTENTION. 

Wanamaker told an affecting incident of a young man who presented 
himself at the Association rooms in Philadelphia; he had come to 
the city to search for work, failed to get it, spent his money, and had 
not enough left to pay for a night's lodging. Just then he was offered 
a situation in a liquor saloon, but had the courage to refuse it. "No," 
said he, " I will starve and freeze first. My father in the country is 
a Methodist class- leader, and my mother is praying for me; and it 
would break her heart to know that I was engaged in selling liquor." 
This young man was just one of thousands in our large cities, and 
they need our sympathy. Mr. Wanamaker again called upon the 
ministers present to give the Young Men's Christian Associations 
their hearty co-operation, and also counseled all present to give 
themselves to individual work for the Master, not relying upon su- 
perintendents, secretaries or committees, but each man and woman 
making the resolve to bring one soul to Christ every day of their 
life. 

Mr. W. E. Dodge, Jr., very heartily commended the work of 
Young Men's Christian Associations to the prayers and active sym- 
pathy of both ministers and laymen present. In working for the 
conversion of young men, the first thing to be done was to show 
them that every one in the church loves and respects them; show 
them that they are wanted to work in the church; let them feel that 
they are an important part of the church; and make them work 
among themselves, and for each other. In country towns and vil- 
lages, the system of sending out the young men tvyo and two for 
Christian work had been greatly blessed. Much good had been ac- 
complished, and the churches had been awakened by the reports 
which these young men would bring of their work. At the conclusion 
of Mr. Dodge's speech, Mr. Sankey sang, with intense feeling and 
power, the hymn, "What are you going to do, brother?" and the 
whole congregation was moved to tears. It was a touching sight to 
see many of the strong men occupying the delegates' seats in the 
centre of the house visibly affected at the touching, solemn, and 
heart-searching appeal. 

Then Mr. Moody, departing from the programme, made some con- 
cluding remarks enforcing the need for a constant daily baptism of 
the Holy Spirit as the only condition of successful Christians. He 
quoted Scripture passages from the gospel of John and Acts to show 
that both Christ and the apostles waited for the Baptism of the 
Spirit before commencing their mission, and said it was a mistake 
to suppose that, because a man had the Spirit's presence at one time, 
that as a matter of course he had it ever after. Many a man has 
lost the unction of the Spirit, and it was only to be regained by 
heart-searching and earnest imploration. "Oh, for such an outpour- 
ing of the Spirit," said Mr. Moody, "during these last moments of 
the Convention that we may not have room to receive it." After a 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 779 

few moment of silent prayer, a fervent petition was offered by Dr. 

Roswell Hitchcock. 

At the evening meeting the Hippodrome was again crowded to 
its utmost capacity. The exercises were opened with the famil- 
iar hymn, "Come thou fount of every blessing," by the whole con- 
gregation. Prayer was next offered by one of the delegates, and 
then followed the hymn, "Almost Persuaded," by Mr. Sankey. 
After this Mr. Moody, instead of a sermon, commenced a series of 
questions, which he put to the Rev. Dr. Plumer, of South Carolina, 
as follows: 

Q. I am living in the world with eternity before me, and I have 
broken the law of God; what must I do to be saved? A. There is 
but one single answer to that question. It sounds out in the jail at 
Philippi: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved and thy house." That is the substance of all the Scripture 
on this subject, summed up in a few words. 

Q. Is faith in Christ essential to salvation? A. " He that believ- 
eth not is condemned already, because he believeth not in the name 
of the only-begotten Son of God." " Without faith it is impossible 
to please God." • 

Q. There are a good many in the inquiry-room who tell us we are 
making too much of faith In the Lord Jesus Christ. A. That may 
mean two things — first, that we are making too much of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and that cannot be so, for he is all in all, the First and 
the Last, the Author and the Finisher of our salvation, the one Me- 
diator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King of his 
church; or it may mean that we are making too much of faith itself, 
and that cannot be so, unless we are making more of it than the 
Bible does. The words "faith" and "believe" occur about 500 
times in the New Testament; and in a large number of cases, they 
are so found as to imply the absolute necessity of salvation. Jesus 
taught his disciples this when they asked him "What shall we do 
that we may work the works of God?" saying, "This is the work of 
God that ye believe on the name of his Son whom he hath sent." 
And again Christ said: " If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die 
in your sins." 

Q. Does our faith, or want of faith, decide our relationship to God 
the Father? A. The Scriptures say: "Whosoever denieth the Son, 
the same hath not the Father; ye have both seen and hated both me 
and my Father;" and so many other Scriptures. No man can refuse 
to confess that Christ, the Son of God, is come in the flesh, without 
denying God. 

Q. Is faith in Christ wrought by the Holy Ghost alone? A. The 
Bible says: "Faith is the operation of God; and the fruit of the 
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering." Faith is the fruit of the 



780 CHKISTIAN CONVENTION. 

Spirit. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy 
Ghost." 

Q. Is there no substitute for this faith in Jesus Christ? A. The 
want of faith bars everything. I remember John Calvin puts it: 
" The annihilation of faith is the abolition of all the promises." The 
Scriptures justify this remark. In the great commission given by 
Christ to the preachers of the gospel he says, " He that believeth not 
shall be damned." These words are those of the Son of God. 

Q. What is the faith that saves the soul ? A. Because faith is a 
simple act of the soul and not complex, it is not very difficult to ex- 
plain it, but we can say something about it in a few words. " Be- 
lieving on Christ," " believing in Christ," and " faith toward our 
Lord Jesus Christ," are all terms found in the New Testament, 
and all mean the same thing. That is comfort; and if we seek the 
testimony of God concerning his Son, he sets to his seal that God is 
a true witness, when he says eternal life is in his Son. It is hearty 
persuasion. Saving faith is a hearty persuasion that Jesus Christ is 
the sole and sufficient cause of salvation to lost men. It is a cordial 
belief that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is come in the flesh and 
has died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. 

Q. We hear a great deal about feeling. Can faith be experienced 
by our sense of feeling? A. The outward sense of feeling cannot 
be expressed, I suppose is your meaning; but the Scriptures say it 
can. Paul calls on his hearers to feel after God if haply they might 
find him. It represents a man as a poor blind man groping his way, 
and he is in earnest, but cannot see. Take the case of Bartimeus. 
There he was, blind; but he heard a noise and asked what it meant, 
and they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by; and he 
started. He may have stumbled and may have fallen, but he was 
soon up and at it again; and as he went he cried, "Jesus, thou son of 
David, have mercy on me!" Some found fault with him for his 
noise, and told him to be silent; but he cried out a great deal more, 
"Jesus thou son of David, have mercy on me!" He felt after him 
and groped his way, found the Lord and got the blessing. So you 
may be poor and spiritually blind, and so far from the Redeemer; 
but oh, feel after him, if haply you may find him. 

Q. Is the sense of taste ever used to illustrate faith in the Bible? 
A. Many a time. " Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed 
is the man that trusteth in him." The call upon us is to make a trial, 
to test the thing by experience. We read and hear a great deal of 
the excellency of coming; but if you come and taste frequently, 
you will know more of its sweetness than by all the pictures you 
could give. The text I cited says "See;" that means, "know cer- 
tainly." The man that comes to Christ and tastes his love, sees that 
the Lord is gracious. 

Q. Is faith ever spoken of as hearing the gospel message? A. 



CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 781 

Many a time. " Incline your ears," saith God. "Hear and your 
soul shall live." And Jesus himself says, " He that is of God, hear- 
eth God's words." And he often said when on earth, " He that has 
ears to hear let him hear." Indeed, Christ loved such language so 
much that, sixty years after he was glorified in heaven, he sent seven 
epistles to as many churches, in each one of which he says, " He that 
hath ears to hear let him hear." Oh, my hearers, hear; and your 
souls shall live, and not die. 

Q. Is faith in Christ the same thing as looking to Christ? So 
much is said in Scripture about looking, that we should like to hear 
what is the difference between faith and looking. A. None. In the 
days of Moses, in the wilderness the fiery serpents got among the 
people, and many of them died from the effect of the bite. And 
God told Moses to make a serpent of brass, and put it on a pole 
above the tabernacle; and whosoever looked upon the brazen serpent 
should live. I don't think it is a stretch of the imagination to say 
that this case may have occurred many a time. A man might come 
to his brother to-night and say, "Oh, brother, you are bitten; are 
you not?" "Yes." " But there is good news for you. There' is a 
serpent of brass upon the pole; and if you will look to it, you will 
get well." "But," says the bitten man, "I am almost blind now; I 
am half dead already. It cannot do me any good. Looking on a 
brass serpent cannot cure a poisoned person, without any medicine." 
" Well," says the brother, "try it;" and they help him up and direct 
him to look, and ask him if he sees. And he replies, "I do believe I 
see something glistening in the sun. I feel better already. Why, I 
am well. Glory be to God!" And the prophets of Israel said, in 
reference to the Messiah: "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the 
ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me there is no Savior." 
And Jesus himself said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoso- 
ever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Q. Can people look unto him to-night and be saved? A. We 
have God's command for it. Why not look now? Give up all other 
hopes, and don't trifle and take a dose of morality, or depend upon a 
little amendment of life, but look upon him and live. 

Q. Do the Scriptures teach us the nature of an act of faith to save 
the soul? A. They say that " I am the living bread that came down 
from heaven ;" and we must eat of it. They say that salvation is the 
water of life, and we must drink it; that we must receive the Son 
of God, welcome him, and must fly for refuge, like the man-slayer, 
for the hope that is set before us in the gospel. 

Q. Are we ever commanded anywhere in Scripture to embrace the 
gospel? A. The word embrace is not found there, but the command 
is in other terras. Kiss the Son. In western Asia, it was common 
for persons who had been at variance to have times of settlement, 



782 CHRISTIAN CONVENTION. 

and they came together and kissed, as the father of the prodigal fell 
upon his son's neck and kissed him in token of perfect reconcilia- 
tion; and that is the way the custom has been introduced into mod- 
ern Europe. General Macomb, when at the head of the American 
army, told me that he was called upon to settle a diiference between 
two officers of the French navy. He heard the story of each sepa- 
rately, and made his decision, and announced it to each, separately, 
and then called them together and announced it to both. They, of 
course accepted it, and, addressing them in French, he told them to 
embrace. Whereupon, they threw their arms about each other's 
necks and kissed, and thus made a final settlement. And so David, 
in the second Psalm, says: "Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye 
perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little," for one 
drop of his wrath will put any man on earth into torment, like the 
torment of the damned. 

Q. Does faith express trust in the Redeemer? What is the differ- 
ence between faith and trust? A. Paul speaks of faith as trust in 
God. In Ephesians he says, "Ye who first trusted in Christ;" and 
again, "I know in whom I believe." If you look in the margin you 
will see that it reads, " I know whom I have trusted." You must 
confide in Christ. The word rely is found three times in the Old 
Testament, and every time it is in the sense of believe, or relying on 
God's Word. 



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